Today’s adventure was another Camino, or a big little one, El Caminito del Rey! A rather famous walk thru a very narrow canyon along suspended walkways.

It all started back in 1901 when a canal was built to direct water to the new hydroelectric dam at the end of the canyon. A path was needed to maintain the canal and so the caminito was built, originally called the “little balconies of the Gaitanes”. Then in 1921 King Alfonso came to inaugurate the whole thing and thence it was named the King’s Pathway, or Caminito del Rey.

In the 1970’s a new underground pipe was built to carry the water so the canal became irrelevant and no longer maintained, and it slowly disintegrated so that in 1999 was named: The Most Dangerous Path in the World. Officials closed it till someone had the bright idea to rebuild it (with safety measures like handrails!) and open it as a tourist attraction. 2014 and €15 million later it reopened as a resounding success.

In December 2022 a huge storm caused boulders from above to demolish a good part of the walkway. We were lucky as it had only reopened a few weeks before.

I had read an article about it eons ago when it was still a death trap and it stuck in my mind as a potential Bucket List item. I just happened to remember it when planning my free day in Málaga and voilá!

The Caminito started with a 1.6km walk through the nature park to the start of the canyon where we had our safety briefing and got our hard hats. Then another 1.5km along the walkways, a km or two in an open valley, then another 1.5km of very narrow gorge with amazing geology: colorful rocks, vertical volcanic shifts, huge caverns, and a 2km walk at the end.

And that’s the Caminito! We loved it, though Janice was hoping for a bit more adrenaline-inducing moments, it was great fun. We had time for a delicious bite at the end, munching and drinking our tinto verano while watching climbers scale the cliffs above us, before we boarded our bus for the one hour drive back to Málaga. A very enjoyable day out.