Ronda starts work on new 1.5 million euro gorge walk

Ronda town hall has started work on a new 1.5 million euro gorge walk which the council hopes will become one of the main attractions in the popular tourist town, just an hour inland from the Costa del Sol.

The first phase of the Camino del Desfiladero del Tajo project will involved refurbishing an existing route which starts at the old Casa Manolillo and snakes down to the base of the 'new bridge'.

In the second phase of works the Ronda town council plans to install a footbridge at the bottom of the Guadalevín river gorge, several metres above the riverbed. The bridge has been designed by the same architect who was the mastermind behind Malaga province's famous Caminito del Rey tourist attraction, Luis Machuca.

The new walk will allow visitors to enjoy a very different view of Ronda, from below, at the bottom of the gorge.

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The footbridge will be about 250 metres long and suspended about three metres above the water level. The complete route will start from the Campillo area, go down the restored La Albacara path to the Casa Manolillo and then down to the base of the bridge and continue along the footbridge, on the left side of the gorge.

The route would then pass under the 'new bridge' and the 'old bridge' and emerge at the side of the Curtidurías bridge to end at the San Miguel hermitage.

Ronda mayor María de la Paz Fernández, and councillor for Works Concha Muñoz visited the works on Tuesday 2 May, which involved an investment of almost 400,000 euros from the Junta de Andalucía. Muñoz said the works would take three months to complete.