A later start today as my Ronda hotel included breakfast which I wasn’t going to miss my coffee and it was just 30° outside! I was in no hurry to start walking….

The Camino headed out of Ronda, curving around the big circular escarpment that made the city so impregnable until almost directly opposite from town before it headed northwest into the hills.

The route climbed for a couple miles on hard road, passing dormant vineyards and minor olive farms before, at 9k, turning onto a quieter though still paved road wending down to green cereal fields and still brown furrowed plots.

10.6k and not a rock to sit on for miles so made do sitting in a ditch for my mid-walk break!

There’s the occasional hum of a tractor or sounds of farmers’ voices as they tend to chores otherwise it’s just me and the birds out on this crisp Wednesday morning. As the distance ticked by the olive farms got larger and larger till that’s all one could see.

20k to Setenil de las Bodegas, a truly unique town and quite a touristed spot. First I checked into a rather luxe hotel and treated myself to a gourmet meal, then went out to explore….

It was wonderful, exploring something amazing around every corner. Yes these two main streets are full of cafes and a few trinket shops but that’s enticing to tourists and good for the economy. There’s shops with rock ceilings and walls, houses squeezed together with only narrow passages to traverse, and at least one entrepreneurial man who for a euro will let you see inside his “rock house”. Of course I paid up! His family has lived in that dwelling for 4 generations. Though his 3 kids all now live in Mallorca, lol.

I wandered all around the historic part, saw the 12th C Arabic tower, the 18th C church, the tiny 5,000 yr old figurine and her museum of which they are inordinately proud – generally played tourist myself until the late afternoon and arctic winds sent me back to hibernate in my room.