Il Camino simply means ‘the path’ or ‘the road’ in Spanish. Most people might think of il camino de Santiago, the famous pilgrims-route from France and all across the Iberian continent. However, there are innumerous known and unknown, longer and shorter caminos here. Every village has it’s caminos, and we discover new ones around Ronda every day.
Our most recent find is a walk that ends in a cave. Though the path takes just about an hour, it brings us through a tremendously diverse landscape. We take off from town on asphalt roads, walking into a countryside of rolling hills and olive farms. As the road narrows into a gravel path, the small farms or cortigos offer a veritable Noah’s Arch of farm animals: sheep, goats, a barking dog, free range chickens and ducks, a horse or two and usually a miserable old donkey. Further on, there are signs of private hunting ground and a lovely abandoned ruin. As the path becomes a nature path, partly cobbled some centuries ago, we pass through a couple of gates, which assures that no animals can come in or out. The landscape is Jurassic at it’s best with stone-formations that echo New Mexico. Behind the next turn, it feels like we have been teleported to the Alberta badlands, only with Mediterranean herbs growing wild everywhere. Our walk ends up at a cave where climbers and cave divers have played before us. I am sure there are cave drawings around, as there are 25,000-year-old cave drawings in other caves near Ronda – yet to be explored.
Our next camino goes between Ronda and the coast, a 13 hours walk. As they say here: Hay más tiempo que vida. There is more time than life…
