The journey to El Caminito Del Rey

Today has been a really chilled and productive day. It started at the summit of El Torcal where we get up quite early at 8am, Fed Diego and had a cup of tea and then decided to head into Antiquera to get our washing done and do our first LPG fill up.
We found a motorhome parking spot that had water and a dump station and we filled up, dumped our waste and cleaned the toilet. Just around the corner was a laundrette so we parked up and paid for the washing and from start to finish it only took 45mins.
Then it was back on the road driving through some of the most scenic countryside and we decided that the province of Malaga was quite beautiful and probably our favourite part of Spain so far.
Our first stop was the ancient ruins of babastro. The ruins had been left from the 9th & 10th century and although there wasn’t a lot left by the time we got to the end and saw the remains of the church carved into the rock, we were in awe of what they had achieved in that time period.
From Babastro we took the slow drive down the mountain to find parking for the night ready for our big hike tomorrow, the El Caminito del Ray gorge walk. We didn’t particularly want to pay €20 for the night and lots of people on park4night have said they just slept in the parking bays near the entrance but they were packed at 2:30pm and just as we were coming out of town there was a few parking spaces and we managed to get Wanda in.
Then we made lunch and fed Diego again and then we went on a beautiful walk down a footpath that led to the bottom of the gorge, the beauty was spectacular and the silence was deafening.
2 hours later we arrived back at Wanda and then a British motorhome pulled along the front and the driver jumped out to ask if we were staying.
After a brief chat it turns out that all the campsites were full and apparently all the tickets for the gorge walk have gone. Ellie checked online and it was true. Next available date is the 4th November. I was gutted but speaking to this other driver he said he was going to get to the ticket booth for 7am and it was about 1km from where the path starts so we agreed to do the same and hope we would get tickets.
After a light dinner, Ellie said we should check where the ticket booth was so we know how long it would take in the morning. Great idea.
We set off just as the sun was setting at 7:30pm, walked through the tunnel and then we were onto the mountain side in the woods as it was getting dark. Time ticked on and after 30mins it was pitch black, the ticket booth was nowhere in sight and our only source of light was our phones.
It took us a little over 45 mins to reach the ticket booth, there was no information about tickets or anything at all about the hike but there was a security guard who told us to come back at 8am. Then we had to negotiate our way back out, but that was via a different path which led through a tunnel, however you can’t see the tunnel path in the dark as it slopes down so we ended up walking another mile through the woods, down the mountain side and then along the road back to Wanda. A little over 4 miles in total on top of the 4 miles we had already done earlier in the day.
We were both ready for bed.Read more