Monday 2 November - White Towns

[Photos: Ronda - Mill houses, Bullring, Bridge, Butcher. Setenil, Plains]

 

We had always had Ronda on our list of places we must visit, and today was the day. We got up really early – 7am and were away by 8am. Pretty good for us, and way ahead of most Spanish, who sensibly prefer a slower start to the day. It was only about an hour and a half to Ronda, through mostly pretty dry landscape. It was a very attractive drive, taking in some smaller roads, which is always a whole lot more pleasant than the 4-lane 120km/h motorways.

 

Managed to find a park easily in Ronda, and worked our way down towards the old centre. First we came across a very nice, broad and tree-shaded plaza, which turned out to be right on the edge of the cliff that Ronda is built on. Plenty of Spaniards about as today was a national holiday for them. From the plaza, we could see the older part of Ronda (where it started on an isolated rock), the original track to it, and all the mill buildings below us along the river. It is very attractive country around here.

 

Next along from the plaza was a bull-fighting ring, said to be the first purpose-built bull-ring in the world. Previously there were clearly plenty of bull-fights, but only in squares or other spaces. This one was a good size ring which we were able to walk around, complete with interesting bull handling facilities, and a museum built under the seating. The bull handling area showed the respect they give the bulls – all the movement and confinement of bulls was done from above with ropes, sliding and hinged gates, and was very heavily built. The ring is clearly still in use.

 

We finally go to the sight Ronda is known for – the bridge separating the original outcrop and old town from the newer areas. It was built twice, with the first built in the 1560s collapsing 30 years later killing 50 people. The next build was massive, with bases going the full depth of the narrow gorge. Karen and I went down the original entry path to get a view back at the bridge – a long way down and even longer back, but the reward was a good view of the chasm and the bridge. Some looneys were abseiling down a waterfall directly below the bridge. Abseiling can be fun, but why add the discomfort of doing it inside a waterfall?

 

Again found ourselves lunchless at 2pm – we seem to be adapting to Spanish time, without really trying. Picked up some tasty bocadillos for lunch, then finished off the town visit with a trip down to the Arab baths where we arrived at 3:05 to find the gates closing up. Siesta can be very frustrating at times. Back up to the streets, the car and then the next of the white hill towns. We haven’t found the white hill towns here as spectacular as the Italian or French equivalents. Sure the white makes them different, but they are not as tightly contained as the other countries towns, nor in such good locations. Here the intensity of the original town has been diluted with newer buildings radiating out from the old centre, while in France or Italy, we saw many where the new town if there was one at all, was below and outside the old town walls, and so the integrity of the original was preserved.

 

Our second white town stop was at Setenil. Ronda is said to be the most attractive white town, while Setenil is the most unusual, as it is built into a volcanic tufa gorge, and a number of the houses are tucked in under tufa overhangs, with caves digging into the rock at the rear of them. We got there just as the sun was setting inside the gorge, well before real sunset of course. The streets each side of the gorge are called Sunny Street and Shady Street (in Spanish of course). It looks like those on the north and shady side may well never see sunshine at all. We had a good walk up the village, like Ronda very tidy and well looked after.

 

Back home on a different set of roads, through entirely different country. While the trip out was through hilly land, with plenty of olives and a lot of unused land, the return was over huge plains of cultivated rolling land, at this time of year lying fallow. A number of beautiful farms, with big clusters of buildings complete with stables, yards and houses.