Sierra de las Nieves

Probably worth going large.

It's been another full on day, starting with a drive out to Ronda via the dramatic gorge of El Chorro. I tried to persaude TJ that we should take a stroll along the Camino del Rey, one of the most famous walks in the world, but I was overruled. Unfortunately, she'd already heard the exaggerated claims that it's a little dangerous! Looks fine to me - as you can see on her blip here.

We enjoyed a wonderful couple of hours in Ronda, exploring the old part of the city, which is separated from the newer part by a remarkable gorge. It's an incredibly dramatic setting, and very photogenic. The sun felt warm but, in shorts and sleeveless shirts, we seemed very underdressed compared to everyone else, who really wouldn't have looked out of place back home.

After a little dose of culture we were ready to get back into the mountains and chose a walk in the Sierra de las Nieves from the little town of Yunquera. We climbed up through ever thinning forest to emerge on a high ridge over 1600m high. We could see the limestone outcrop featured here from quite a way off and made this our target. With a little bit of mist rolling in the scene was wonderfully atmospheric. TJ was in her element with many interesting species of shrub and herbs to educate me about. Everything was so fragrant. The thyme we found growing in abundance was astonishingly aromatic. She's stolen some to smuggle back in to the country!

We timed our descent to perfection, getting back to the car, much like yesterday, with just minutes to spare before being plunged into blackness! We drove a different way back via Alora, where we had a very fine dinner at what seemed like the only restaurant in town, and which took a lot of finding. Various people we asked gave us directions to it but none seemed to make any sense. We were tempted to think that the whole town was in on the game of "confuse the English tourists".

The day has just finished with a soak in the Jacuzzi. I'm a virgin when it comes to this experience and it was only tonight that I discovered that the jets have a high power setting. Now that was something else! I had no idea water could be so much fun!