Tourist - "But that is revolting".
Tour guide - "No, that is our second favourite pastime".
Besides the gorge, Ronda is best known as a bull fighting town, and our hotel is over the road from the oldest bull ring is Spain. The local hero is Pedro Romero who fought over 6000 bulls, and was never gored. Bull fighting has apparently been around since Visigothic times, and was well established in Roman times. I guess the Spanish didn't get the memo about cruelty to animals!
We did not tour the bullring, opting instead to walk to the church in a cave, Rupeste Virgen de la Cabeza, about 4 km out of town. Apparently during Moorish times, 9th / 10th century, Christians were tolerated in Ronda, but they could not practice their faith within the city walls, so they built a church in a cave, across the valley from the city.
Anticipating hot weather, we set off at 9 am with a good supply of water, and it took about an hour and a quarter to get there, with a few distractions along the way, firstly visiting ruins of a villa and a tower, and secondly so that Randy could sample the local olives - he was still trying to get the taste of the orange out of his mouth from last night, and the olives took care of that for him, but not even a Fisherman's Friend will get rid of the taste of the unripe olives.
The church cave was well and truly locked up when we arrived, and it seems is never open to tourists, so a bit of a disappointment, but a good walk.
Marty's back was bothering her, so she and Randy walked back to town, the way we had come, while Marlene and I braved the alternative route back. We had very good online instructions, which ensured that we did not get lost. The path took us down a steep hill, then through an oak forest, before joining a meandering road in the valley bottom. We had great views of the new bridge and the city along the route, and opted for the scenic choice once almost back, which took us to a viewpoint, with fantastic views of the bridge and waterfall beneath it. Overall a 10 km walk with 990 feet of elevation gain (almost all of it in the last km).
We were then ready for a "meal", before our siesta, as breakfast was a pear, a plum, and a slice of toast at 8:30 am. I demolished a plate of pork and fries, a plate of omelette, and two cokes, while Marlene put away a vegetable paella and an orange juice.
It was 34 degrees Celsius when we left the hotel again at 5 pm, and we wandered some more on the Moorish side of the bridge, winding our way down to the old bridge (which was actually rebuilt in the 1960s). We found some nice spots on both sides of the gorge to sit and enjoy some coolness, out of the direct sun.
We revisited our favourite tapas bar (the sangria was calling to Marlene) and enjoyed an hour of people watching, then did a little shopping, before taking a circuitous route back to the hotel.
A great day, and although we did not break any distance records, we set a new elevation gain record at 1290 feet, so we were allowed to feel tired at 10 pm.
Tomorrow afternoon we take the train to Seville, as we begin the last week of our holiday.
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