21 December ’05, Wednesday.
The moment we left the city limits of Marbella, we were climbing into the mountains. A nice 2 lane road, but it was one of those that would drive some drivers absolutely nuts…impossible to pass on. If a car or VW van just can’t run up the steep hills and make the sharp turns quite as fast as those that end up behind you, well it’s just too bad. The turns come at you so fast and plentiful, it leaves no distance even for a quick car to get by. That was the case for telling me, I couldn’t take the time to look…). One of the only distractions I had on my mind was the gas gauge. I have said it before, and I’ll probably be saying it the rest of the time I’m able to drive…”I will never let the gas gage show below the 1/3 mark without getting it FILLED !!! But for some reason it still gets down to the point that I get into those “No Gas Sweats” too often. Every time we got into a real steep climb, the gage went down below empty, but then when we kind of leveled out it went just above the “E” mark. One of my saving points was we only had 50 miles to go and I was in hopes that half of that might be down hill. Fortunately we found a gas station about 10 miles out of Ronda, so from that point I could be rest assured that I wouldn’t have to walk for gas through the mountains. Oh yes, then there was the wind. Did I say wind, hell it was a hurricane and it was pushing us from the front back down the hill for the whole trip. After pulling into the campground here in Ronda, we found out that the wind was going to stay with us for at least 3 or as much as 6 more days. If the wind quits it will rain…what do you want??? OK, we will live with it. After setting up camp, we headed out for town. We were told it was just a 1.7km walk to the walls of the old town, but by the time we walk into the “new city”, we might want to call a cab to get back. All bundled up for “Winter” walking, we headed off. Both of us looked like a couple of heavy weights walking down the road. It felt strange to have all those clothes on all at once, and still feel comfortable. The wind was pretty much at our back going into town and it was down hill all the way. Now lets talk about 3 hours later when we want to head on back to “Bumble Bee”. It was tough going, but I guess it wasn’t tough enough because we plan on doing the same tomorrow… I guess I should say a little bit about Ronda, and what we were able to see the first afternoon there. Ronda is set in a spectacular location, one massive rock outcrop that straddles a limestone gorge. Because of its impregnable position, Ronda was one of the last Moorish “bastions” to fall to the Christians in 1485. There is still a lot of “Moorish” influence shown here in the architecture, whether be it new or old. Of course we have the cobbled streets and sidewalks?, narrow streets?, white washed buildings with window grilles, small patios with lots of flowers streaming colors and fragrances everywhere. There are very few dogs or cats around this town, which is quite unusual. Walking the “Old Town” from one end to the other doesn’t take a lot of time, but there is a lot to see. The 1st stop I wanted to make was at the Puente Nuevo (New Bridge). Built in the 18th century, this bridge spans the huge Tajo gorge. It is 330 feet deep and about 200 feet across. It is spectacular, and I’m glad I had a chance to see it. Then it was off to see the Casa del Rey Moro. This was a castle for the Moorish King, when the Moors were in power prior to 1485. The Santa Maria la Mayor church, which was built on the foundations of a Muslim Mosque. Of course, there were a couple more churches, a convent, 2 more palaces, 3 gates, 3 bridges, and etc, etc… This is a town that we are having a good time in and if the wind would let up for a while it would even be better. Well, we’ll be back tomorrow….
The moment we left the city limits of Marbella, we were climbing into the mountains. A nice 2 lane road, but it was one of those that would drive some drivers absolutely nuts…impossible to pass on. If a car or VW van just can’t run up the steep hills and make the sharp turns quite as fast as those that end up behind you, well it’s just too bad. The turns come at you so fast and plentiful, it leaves no distance even for a quick car to get by. That was the case for telling me, I couldn’t take the time to look…). One of the only distractions I had on my mind was the gas gauge. I have said it before, and I’ll probably be saying it the rest of the time I’m able to drive…”I will never let the gas gage show below the 1/3 mark without getting it FILLED !!! But for some reason it still gets down to the point that I get into those “No Gas Sweats” too often. Every time we got into a real steep climb, the gage went down below empty, but then when we kind of leveled out it went just above the “E” mark. One of my saving points was we only had 50 miles to go and I was in hopes that half of that might be down hill. Fortunately we found a gas station about 10 miles out of Ronda, so from that point I could be rest assured that I wouldn’t have to walk for gas through the mountains. Oh yes, then there was the wind. Did I say wind, hell it was a hurricane and it was pushing us from the front back down the hill for the whole trip. After pulling into the campground here in Ronda, we found out that the wind was going to stay with us for at least 3 or as much as 6 more days. If the wind quits it will rain…what do you want??? OK, we will live with it. After setting up camp, we headed out for town. We were told it was just a 1.7km walk to the walls of the old town, but by the time we walk into the “new city”, we might want to call a cab to get back. All bundled up for “Winter” walking, we headed off. Both of us looked like a couple of heavy weights walking down the road. It felt strange to have all those clothes on all at once, and still feel comfortable. The wind was pretty much at our back going into town and it was down hill all the way. Now lets talk about 3 hours later when we want to head on back to “Bumble Bee”. It was tough going, but I guess it wasn’t tough enough because we plan on doing the same tomorrow… I guess I should say a little bit about Ronda, and what we were able to see the first afternoon there. Ronda is set in a spectacular location, one massive rock outcrop that straddles a limestone gorge. Because of its impregnable position, Ronda was one of the last Moorish “bastions” to fall to the Christians in 1485. There is still a lot of “Moorish” influence shown here in the architecture, whether be it new or old. Of course we have the cobbled streets and sidewalks?, narrow streets?, white washed buildings with window grilles, small patios with lots of flowers streaming colors and fragrances everywhere. There are very few dogs or cats around this town, which is quite unusual. Walking the “Old Town” from one end to the other doesn’t take a lot of time, but there is a lot to see. The 1st stop I wanted to make was at the Puente Nuevo (New Bridge). Built in the 18th century, this bridge spans the huge Tajo gorge. It is 330 feet deep and about 200 feet across. It is spectacular, and I’m glad I had a chance to see it. Then it was off to see the Casa del Rey Moro. This was a castle for the Moorish King, when the Moors were in power prior to 1485. The Santa Maria la Mayor church, which was built on the foundations of a Muslim Mosque. Of course, there were a couple more churches, a convent, 2 more palaces, 3 gates, 3 bridges, and etc, etc… This is a town that we are having a good time in and if the wind would let up for a while it would even be better. Well, we’ll be back tomorrow….