<![CDATA[

Ronda, Spain

We hired an ex pat Aussie driver – tour operator as recommended by Rick Steve and Trip Advisor to take us on a tour of the Andalusian Hill towns. The countryside around Seville moves from flat land to rolling then progresses to craggy high hills. There are occasional big hilly nobs some of which have lone castle remains on the top, obviously once upon a time serving as a look out or fortress. Sunflowers are being planted at the moment which must look lovely later on, but currently the fields have young wheat and pale pinky lavender opium, the latter Paul said is not advertised, but grown for pharmaceutical purposes.

Our first stop was Olvera which had the typical lime washed houses tightly arranged against the hill all overseen by a 12th century Moor tower. It was just a brief lookout but charming none the less.

The second village Setenil De Las Bodegas was fascinating and dates back to cave dwellers in medieval times and then Moors settled before Christians cannoned them out. It is on a cliff with three sheer walls so is a natural fort that withstood the Christian attacks until they managed to get a canon close. The original cave dwellings progressed to houses, the people essentially put a wall up on the front.

There we enjoyed a cuppa and some terrific tapas. We got potato tortilla, grilled calamari and seasoned sausage little burger plus three coffees, only 7.90 euro. Complimentary olives yum. The cafe was tiny and in a cave, and was really cute with smoke blackened cave ceilings probably a thousand years old or more. To go to the toilet you had to go up a narrow stairway running along the cave wall and through a little wooden door into a little room which was hollowed out cave! Mainly older people live in the towns and like everywhere in Spain there is high unemployment, but there would be some seasonal work to be found locally.

Next stop was Ronda which is a famous town for its bridge over a gorge. A picture says a thousand words and the panorama shows the grandeur of the scenery. A lady was singing and playing a harp (busking) which added to the dreamy historical atmosphere. We found Ronda very pretty and wished we had more than about 40 minutes to spend there. It is a place we would love to return to.

Moving on the country side changed a bit as we got higher and further from the city, lots of wildflowers in the paddocks. I am not sure what types, but can recognise red poppies, lavender lupin type, and other whites and yellows and purples in abundance. Paul said they last a couple of months. Not a lot of livestock, only a few goats and a couple of sheep.

After Ronda we climbed to 820m to Grazalema where only 50 years ago a Roman road was uncovered. They knew about Roman history there as there are some ruins on one of the hills, just hadn’t been aware of the road. We had lunch in the small plaza – yes more food where one of the tapas we had was local wild thistle in a tortilla which was nice. I also tried a zero percent beer that Paul was having and that was extremely refreshing. We topped our water up at the town water taps which date to medieval and Roman times.

Next stop was a village where Paul has a house. It has a 15th century castle ruin on a hill above a reservoir, and borders a large natural reserve – Zahara. We had a tea and rest room break at Paul’s house which was charming. Inside these white hillside homes its quite cool and I was delighted to have been able to see inside one.

A lovely day and well worth it to see the beautiful Andalusian countryside. Oh apparently the reason they painted the houses white was to ward off the plague that was killing people. It worked but not for the superstition, but the fact that lime wash actually did kill germs. At that time they did not know about germs or lime’s properties.

We did get a bit anxious on way home as our driver kept splashing himself with water to stay awake from his drink bottle and pulled over for a 2 minute break to wake up. Eek. Serious it was rather terrifying because he was absolutely fighting to stay awake at the wheel, I wanted Vern to take over. Home safe, updating the blogs and will head local for a light bite later in case we haven’t had enough to eat today already!

]]>