Today we had to meet our nemesis: A short stretch of about 15m with only a rope above the abyss. Just a hint: swearing helps a lot.
And after the descent, as it was Sunday, there was even some Blasmusik (a bavarian band playing traditional music on brass instruments).
The Kampenwand
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In a kind of kamikaze action we drove 650 km on friday night from Berlin to Rottach-Egern south of Munich to take part in a vertigo class. I highly recommend the useful lessons from our trainer Heike, who was a Höhenängstler (someone who has Vertigo) herself once, which makes her very credible.
Vertigo is not gone after two days but at least I know what is happening inside of me and what I do right or wrong in the moment of truth. The rest is training she says. And in fact: My confidence concerning the abyss has already increased slightly.
All the stress is forgotten when I’m standing on the top of a mountain and see the snow covered mountain tops of the near Austrian alps.
Tegernsee:
We – my wonderful host Bots and I – did a hike to the white mountain villages of the area.
Technically speaking I quit the Gran Senda de Màlaga some time ago and I do some hikes wherever I am. Currently I’m in Cartajima, some kilometers south of Ronda at the wonderful Refugio hostel.
I really feel “at home” – if one can say that being on a journey – for the first time since I am here in Andalusia.
Today I went up a mountain to Los Riscos which are some kind of strange jurassic rock formations just without dinosaurs.
Afterwards I met a caravan club from the Netherlands who took me with them to the smurf village wich was painted in blue for a movie. The inhabitants decided – after they had some busloads of visitors from China and all over Europe – to leave it like that.
After that I walked back to Cartajima through a buzzing valley where a little not very shy boar crossed my way.
Cartajima:
Vertigo!
The Caminito del Rey was kind of my nemesis as I have vertigo and I really want to get rid of it.
I had to wait early in the morning because I didn’t reserve a ticket online.
If you get in, you’ll get one of those funny hats. No, it’s a pity, but you can’t keep it.
It starts very smoothly in a wonderful landscape with a turquoise river streaming through, but very quickly it gets kind of uuuuaaaah!!!
When you have passed the first gorge you come to an enchanted valley:
Just until you pass the second gorge:
This bridge you see in the picture is the old bridge. Behind it you can see a – in my eyes – very, very tiny and instable rope bridge. There was a lot of wind and I’m very thankful to the guy who lend me his arm to get me over to the other side.
Yes! I did it! I’m very proud (: And now: Breakfast.
I don’t know if it was the right Sendero Gaitanejo but I saw a lot of signs during my hike. I particularly loved the enchanted section next to river and the view from above on the Caminito del Rey.
On the Sendero Gaitanejo I met the Vergers with their son Matthieu from France. What a nice and funny family! I had a wonderful evening with them 🙂
Changing the hike
From the beginning nothing went like I imagined it would. On the one hand this is disturbing and makes me kind of nervous in the moment of desaster but on the other hand I got to know again, that nearly every kind of situation can be handled and for every door which is closing another one opens up.
Today I went to the mountains without my big backpack because I was able to leave most of my stuff on the camping area.
What a relief! Despite having packed nearly “ultralight”, I must admit that ultralight is not enough. Six kilos + two liters of water and some food makes it at least 8,5 kilos.
Walking and nearly bouncing I came to the result, that I won’t do it again. Those three things are definitely not working together:
As for this hike I can only change one of them I will look for a place to stay for the rest of my time in Andalusia and do some hikes starting from there.
The hike today
After a short walk on the road you enter a dirt road and just until the descent on El Chorro it will stay like that. You’ll hike through a diverse natural and agricultural landscape and the panoramic mountain views are wonderful. There is a short stretch of road again where you can visit Bobastro, an archaeological site of a mozarabic town. It’s a quite big area, so you really have to be interested to do it.
Andalusias hidden lakes
After the road stretch you enter a nice and shady forest. So many lakes and I only saw them on my map but not in reality! La Laguna de Pietra, la Laguna Dulce and now the Embalse Superior Taja de la Encantada. I was just next to it, I saw it on my map but all I really saw, was a giant wall next to me. The scenery looked a little bit like in one of those sci-fi movies where there is another parallel world behind a big insuperable wall. At one moment there is a small trail leading 30m uphill and I went to see the barrier lake behind the wall.
Next to this “bad” world nature seamed still more natural and enchanted. Above all because I was in a little quite forest and when I went around a corner I stood right in front of a kind of capricorn-deer (big as a deer, face like a deer, corns like a capricorn) who was as surprised as I was and disappeared quietly and without panic between the backlighted trees. Magic happens.
The descent on El Chorro is a little challenge due to plants growing over the trail and the trail being rough and quite close to the abyss.
In El Chorro I had something to eat in the restaurant La Garganta, as in the bar and the supermarket on the camping area there is a strict no-vitamins policy, and I went back by bus.
As it was already seven o’clock I was the only passenger and the bus driver let me out at the camping area.
The base of Maslow:
The following night was a nightmare. My tarptent notch is good for every weather except of sandstorms. I woke myself up covered in sand. I had it in my eyes, my ears and between my teeth. Yummy.
As the following night will be as stormy as the last one I booked a bungalow and will have a big nights sleep today.
A desert in three colors – The hike I started to walk from the road south of Alameda and hiked on dirt roads all the time. The area is quite flat and changes gradually its face. I “saw” some strange animals today, small and black and they live in little dirt caves next to the […]
