Acrophobics Retreat (Ronda: Part 2)

With the perilous drive behind us – and no new gravestones to show for it – we finally settled the car into a Ronda parking lot. On our feet again, we set out to walk along the main road towards the massive gorge that splits this town in two. The gorge is Ronda’s most prevalent attribute, an overwhelming natural feature that offers a pretty impressive backdrop to this old mountain town. Spanned by the New Bridge, the gorge is literally a huge crack in the mountainside, a chasm that offers a god’s eye view of an entirely different lifestyle below.

Being that it’s been around since 1793, the New Bridge’s name is a bit of a misnomer. While not the most modern of structures, though, the bridge is a tribute to its time. It took 42 years to complete and rises up a total of 98 metres to meld almost seamlessly with its surroundings. But as impressive as that sounds, it’s the views that the bridge offers rather than the structure itself that inspire visitors to stop and take a look. The gorge opens the town up to the entire surrounding area, showing off in one direction the weathered homes of Ronda, lined up in a row along the cliff’s edge – and teetering much too close to the chasm for my comfort, to tell you the truth.

From the bridge’s other vantage point, the dividing lines of individual farms are visible below, as agricultural land slopes off into the distance, miniscule houses dotting the countryside, joined together by tiny roads and backdropped dramatically by distant mountains. My brothers and I stopped to take in the vistas, snapping pictures and wandering through a variety of lookout points set up for just this purpose.

Of course, some people are a little more willing than I am to risk all for a good photo. Case in point: the tourist who climbed to the top of the old stone wall – a balancing act on crumbling stone that could have had him landing in some Spanish stranger’s farm 98 metres below. I looked away, imagining the tiny gravestone they’d have to erect at the bottom of his drop.

Acrophobia doesn’t go far in this town.

Photo: Mark takes a photo from the New Bridge - Ronda, Spain, November 2003 - LV.

Posted by Lisa.

~ by Lisa on February 27, 2008.