Trips through Spain - Ronda - 4

This is Old Ronda, a Roman ruin.

Saturday 20th May 1995

Andy, the proprietor here, is an ex-secondary school head and runs the place on, as far as possible, green lines. The staff are mostly local and cheerful. There is not much tourism in the area at all. We learned that the single track railway line in the valley here has a daily train to Paris. Andy hands out suggested walks and we took one down the valley by the street towards Jimera. This is theoretically 2.5 hours but the trains back are rare, so we went for 1.5 and came back. There were many wild flowers and birds. We heard a Golden Aureole but did not see it. We did see frogs mating and turtles swimming and sunning themselves, five at once on one occasion. There were a lot of barbel in the stream as well. Very pretty - hot but with a pleasant wind, so much sun-lotion. Back by 1230, we lazed and swam, Avis putting her knee out unexpectedly in the pool.

Turtles in the stream at Benaojan	The view from Ronda La Viella	The view from Ronda La Viella
The view from Ronda La Viella	The view from Ronda La Viella	The view from Ronda La Viella
Ronda La Viella amphitheatre	Ronda La Viella amphitheatre with us	Avis in Ronda La Viella

After tea, we went up to the Roman remains at Old Ronda (Ronda La Viella, quite a way from new), where there is a working amphitheatre, where we met an American couple from Boston (!) The view from the scarp above the theatre is spectacular. This is limestone country, I should have said. The Amis directed us to Setenil, a town in a gorge with houses built literally into the hillside and quite steep. We went back through Arriete, another attractive place by the Ronda by-pass and back for dinner.