To Tarifa

Thursday we drove from Ronda to Tarifa, on the south coast of Spain, west of Gibraltar. The highway was excellent and very scenic, incredibly rough mountainous limestone country, not very high, but scenic nonetheless. And more white towns.

Scenery en route from Ronda to Tarifa

Look kids, another white town!

And a tower

And another

First view of the Mediterranean; then on past boring

Algeciras to Tarifa

Entrance to old town, Tarifa

Nice statue in the harbor area, where we

stayed for the night, on a street under an old

tower and heading to the beach; from Tarifa,

Africa is ten miles away, across the Straits;

that's the Atlas mountains in the right

background

Cueva de la Pileta

We have seen Lascaux and Altamira, both replicas, and also Pech Merle, the real thing, but Cueva de la Pileta, about 15 miles from Ronda, high in the mountains, provides a singular opportunity to see real paleolithic cave art, ranging from 25,000 to 32,000 years old. Vicki decided not to go--poor lighting (you carry your own gas lamp) and poor, damp, slippery footing. But I did the one-hour tour with the owner/grandson of the discoverer of the cave, Sr. Bullon, mostly in Spanish, but enough English to make it a thrill. Cueva de la Pileta is a "working" cave. Water dripping everywhere, pools, rats and mice, every kind of speleological formation in process. Little improvement, no lighting effects (no lighting!), nothing cheesy, much emphasis on preservation of the "art." These artists, to my sense, were not as skilled at those later painters at Lascaux and Altamira. No use of relief in the rock itself. Much of Pileta is simply "abstract"--meaningless (to us) marks on the wall in charcoal or ochre, possibly recording celestial events, or animal kills, or whatever. But it is deeply moving to be in a place where they were, looking at their work. We camped that evening at the turn-off just outside the cave, way high up over the valley. [No pix are allowed in the cave, so I have grabbed three off the web].

It's all under this limestone mountain

The entrance; once you're you're in and the tour begins, he

locks the gate...

Sr. Bullon, guide, owner, grandson of discoverer of the

cave (in 1905)

Horse

Fish

Not sure what...

Some of the collection of artifacts, paleolithic and

neolithic, in the cave

Quiet Camping

Most all campgrounds have quiet rules, but this one, near 
Ronda, took it the extra step: no TV, no radio, no musical 
instruments, etc; "if you don't like quiet and relaxation,

go camp somewhere else"!

We had a nice site

In the olive grove, with a view of the mountains

They had other rules, at the dump-site; no shit...no shit...

But great campground sculpture

All around

Toro!

Ronda's bull ring was the first purpose-built bull ring (1785), the place where the rules of The Game, so to speak, were finally codified (featuring a killer, on foot, with a sword), and home of Pedro Romero, the greatest ever, with over 5000 confirmed kills. After touring the bull ring, the complex, the museum (s), I am now far better informed about bull-"fighting" (theatrically killing an animal already dying) than ever before. One of the most interesting facts about the Ronda ring is that, in its long history, only one matador has ever been killed. How many bulls, I ask, have survived the contest? This is a sport?

Sculpture outside the ring

The matadors' chapel

At the main entrance, a minor tribute to the victim

In the museum, Picasso's take on it all

Inside the ring, alas, my camera can not capture this whole

thing, it only seats about 5,000, but is still pretty large

Seating comes in four categories: sun, part

shade, shade, part-sun

On the ring; evidently, I would guess, the veterinarians are

for the horses

Help Me Ronda, Yeah!



Remnant of old castle, Moorish, Ronda did not fall until

1485, one of the last...

The gorge, from the huge 18th century

bridge

The aforementioned bridge

From the other side of the bridge, in the Civil

War, both sides cast their enemies into the

gorge...

Ronda street scene

Church

In addition to the bull ring (see next post), I also

patronized the modern art museum and the

Museum of Banditry (big in Ronda in the early

19th century)

Next we drove to Ronda, which sits on a high gorge overlooking a valley and the Sierras. I spent a day exploring on foot and then we stayed at one of the more interesting (but very nice) campgrounds we have been in lately.

Pueblos Blancos II: Grazalema

Next up was Grazalema, another hill-top white town, under a beautiful crag. We explored the town in the evening and stimulated the local pastry business, then spent the night there at an air/parking lot.

Beautiful crag on the way to Grazalema

Grazalema

Our campsite, high up in the town, with a great view of

both the mountain and the valley

The whole town is done up in these

wonderful tile histories

Street-scene porch and plants

We don't drive the Grey Wanderer up these

little alleys...especially after an unfortunate

backing-up experience in Ecija

View from the top of the road...well, actually it continued

up to a 4,500 foot pass; we demurred; we have had

enough mountain driving on these twisty, exposed roads

At the foot of the mountain

Pueblos Blancos: Zahara

Andalusian hill country

First view of Zahara

The tower on the crag, from the town

The road up the hill is lined with tiles of wisdom such as

this (with which I heartily concur)

More countryside, from the top

In the distance, another pueblo blanco

Ruins atop the crag

View from the top

The medieval tower

More ruins and countryside

Cacti on the crag

And another white town

From Ecija we dropped down south into the mountains, the realm of the old frontera (as in frontier between Moors and Christians) and the many pueblos blancos, the "white towns." First was Zahara.