Monday, March 7, 2011

Ronda - Estación de Benaoján walk description

Time: approx. 2/3 hours
Ascent: approx. 350 meters

Descent: approx. 300 meters
Distance: approx. 10 km
Walking level: easy
Time of the year: avoid in hot weather as there is no shade.
Best time for wild flowers: January to beginning of June
Starting point: Wide open square of the Barrio San Francisco, Ronda (parking spaces available around it most of the time)


Leave the wide open square of the Barrio San Francisco and the old walls of Ronda (and mini round-about) behind you and walk up the Calle Torrejones (A369 road) signposted for the Camping El Sur (it is also the old road to Algeciras/Atajate).


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Keep walking up, past residential areas until you see a big pink sign indicating La Virgen de la Cabeza. Turn right here and the road forks immediately. Ignore the road on the right going to La Virgen de la Cabeza and take the road on the left. Follow this road down amongst olive and almond groves and keep going downhill.

The road will turn into a dirt track and will fork: ignore the track bearing to the left signposted in blue – this is the walk called “los amanisco” (linear walk), and continue downhill on the wider track bearing right.


Stay on this main track now which will go over 2 passes with meadows on either side. After the first pass, the track will go downhill and up again and you will come to a farm gate. Take the little path to the right of the gate (crossing a river bed - dry most of the time) and follow the path going up in between 2 fences. When at the top of the second pass, you will have great views over Ronda and its famous New Bridge behind you and of the Guadiaro Valley and the village of Benaoján in front of you.


Follow the track downhill with fields either side of you. Watch out for the Sexima Tower, also called Arabs tower (a vigil and protection tower used by the Moors during the Catholic Re-conquest - Ronda was taken in 1485) silhouetted in the distance on the left hand side. You will also be able to see your destination, the village of Estación de Benaoján, an extension of Benaoján which sprung up around the then newly built train station when the Bobadilla-Algeciras train line was constructed (1850). 

Just after reaching a derelict building on the left hand side and a garden on the right, go through the pedestrian little gate to the left of the main gate (well, chain and make shift gate) and continue downhill on the track. Walk round the next “chained fence”. The track turns to tarmac and reaches the main ronda-Banaoján road. At the road, turn left, and before you reach the bridge, take the little path on the left, behind the Armco barriers. And turn left again almost immediately taking the little path going downhill under the trees. You will shortly reach a track.


If you want to have lunch in a cute place and visit the Cueva del Gato, the longest cave complex in Andalucía, turn right, under the road bridge, and follow this path along the river Guadiaro, cross a dry river bed and walk to the right of the Hotel 4 Paradas where the path continues right behind it (don’t go through the gates), and follow the path cobbled in places, along the river until you reach the second hotel/restaurant Cueva del Gato. To see the entrance of the caves with its lovely lagoon, go across the bridge (might still be in a bad state of repair but still passable after last year's floods). Turn back to get to Estación de Benaoján. It normally takes 30 minutes to walk from the bridge to Cueva del Gato.


If you prefer to go to directly to Estación de Benaoján, turn left on the track and follow it along the river, ignoring tracks on your left. At the little bridge (start of the Estación de Benaoján-Estación de Jimera de Libar walk), turn right, cross the bridge and walk up the road leading to the railway crossing, cross it, turn right to get to the train station and there are 2 “bar/restaurants” there. Or turn left and follow signs for Hotel Molino del Santo, if you fancy a gourmet meal by a babbling stream (only 5 minutes away).


Train times departures (journey only takes 20 minutes)
Benaoján to Ronda: 8.27 / 13.11 / 17.16 / 20.24 (not Saturday or Sunday)
Ronda to Benaoján: 07.30 (not Saturday or Sunday) / 09.15 / 16.16 / 19.49

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3 comments:

  1. Thank you for the description Sandrine, this one is on our list!

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  2. Great guide Sandrine, thanks for sharing, this is a walk I planned to do myself but after the car hit me it will have to wait a bit.

    By the way, Ronda was conquered in 1485, and Granada in 1492. By 1495 the pogroms had started.

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  3. Thanks for both your comments! :-) Hope you have a great walk (when weather improves!) and let us know how it went.

    Sorry Andy to hear about your being hit by a car! Hope you are OK. I will correct now the date of the Catholic reconquest of Ronda. Thanks for pointing it out! :-)

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