El Camino del Rey

El Camino del Rey is a very dangerous walkway that goes along the steep walls of a narrow gorge known as El Chorro.

Location of El Chorro

The El Chorro gorge is located in Spain near Alora, a village close to Malaga. It’s very close to the Mediterranean Sea.

El Chorro is a limestone gorge in Andalusia through that passes the Guadalhorce River. In 1921 Dam was made on this river forming three reservoirs, which are having thick pine forests on the sides. Makinodromo is having rivers, lakes, canyons and full of trees, this area is well known in Europe for rock climbing and its also popular for mountain biking, hiking and camping.

Next to El Chorro gorge there is a 700 meters high Desfiladero de los Gaitanes Pass and on the side of this high mountain there is a walkway. This path is famous as a very dangerous path called El Camino del Rey (The King’s little path).

This path was constructed in 1901 and it got its name because Alfonso XIII of Spain officially opened the path.

People are traversing this path from many years but now this path is in poor condition due to lack of repairs. In 2000 a tourist had died trying to cross it. But that accident hasn’t affected many people. El Camino del Rey is still a popular climb even today.

Description

The Camino del Rey is a path constructed on the gorge wall. This unusual walkway is hundred meters above the canyon base and travels the full length of the gorge.

Currently the walkway is no longer in best shape because different sections of concrete are broken away. Still the walking the full length on it is possible. It is said that the walkway was built so that the king can observe the engineering work taking place in the gorge. But now this walkway instead of Royalty gets the climbers.

This walkway is only 3 feet wide and its held to the mountainside by pins driven into the stone. 700 feet below the river is flowing.

On purpose of its building was to allow local workers the ability cross between two nearby waterfalls, Chorro Falls and Gaitanejo Falls and it was serving as a shortcut to workers so that they wont have to climb down the mountain on one side and climb back up on the other.  But now this walk is in status of serious disrepair many parts of this walkway are completely collapsed leaving nothing but a metal beam and a wire. So if you got chance to walk on that then that’s best for you to never look down.

Though there is a great danger and risk but that doesn’t seem to stop people from climbing it. This walkway is still serving as short cut to Makinodromo the famous climbing sector of El Chorro. A century ago this walkway was a shortcut and its still serving as a short cut several people risk their lives on a daily basis to climb on that though is illegal.