Objective: To make it to the caves. Near Benaojan, outside of Ronda. With less than a 10 minute Google for directions, and a slightly bleary morning. (We had to get up super early for the train after a later night than usual!)
The History: The Pileta cave, discovered in 1905 by a farmer, José Bullón Lobato looking for bat droppings. He checked it out with a hand-made rope and found the caves which have over 3000 paintings. Beware - they could each mark as a painting.
There are also over 18,000 bats and the walkway was built by Tomán Bullón, son of the discoverer in 1941, from a hammer and chisel all handmade. Hence why it took 30 years!
The oldest paintings are Paaeolithic, over 30,000 years old. We don;t get to see most of it (too dangerous for us mere tourists) but it is certainly worth the top level caves you do get to explore!
Part 1. Getting to Benaojan
This bit was surprisingly easy. Apart from a ticket officer who looked more then slightly annoyed his rest had been interrupted to do his job...
These trains are my favourite. So much room, massive trays, and vending machines. Take lessons Arriva and Virgin!
Although I don't think we re-create the views.
Part 1. From Benaojan to Cueva de la pileta
By far, less easy.
A 3.89Km walk from the pretty location of Benaojan, one of the pueblos blancos (white villages), to the caves.
We followed a few instructions to get us to a farm track style road, and we were faced with a cautiously private looking gate.
After some to and fro-ing, we just edged around it and carried on. The scenery in the next 20 minutes was breath-taking.
Not as breath-taking as the next section of the walk. See all of those super pretty mountains, the Serrania de Ronda, well the next direction took us straight up one. Steep going!
Can you see the little village in the distance? In the dip between the mountains.
That is where we started and it seemed really far in a relatively short amount of time.
There were regular intervals of little piles of rocks, a good sign we were going in the right direction! Quite motivational - thanks walkers, proof of a real trail!
We finally found a road, just a near-exhaustion event, followed by a skip over a fence :)
On the right track!
Then, to my own personal horror...STAIRS!
Part 3. Into Cueva de la Pileta
At the top we had a bus stop style waiting room until we had enough people to warrant a tour. A mix of mainly Spanish or Americans, and we mindlessly all gossiped until about 20 people were all congregated.
To keep us amused, there was a lively procession of cows, goats and sheep all with cow bells on, on their way to their pastures to graze. The all followed each other in a line between the mountains.
I even thought to catch a bit of the view :)
The caves were awe-inspiring. The best I have ever seen, and the paintings were pretty cool too.
The entrance was quite tricky to get through, but it was an indication of what was to come!
We were not allowed to take photos except at the start:
Not my photos but they are of the caves from our little guidebook we brought, and some others online. :)
Part 4. Back to Ronda
Ryan's mutterings about getting back for the 1:15 train to Benaojan must have been overheard. It was out of the question by the time we finished the tour (just after 1pm) and as we set off, a lovely couple passing through Ronda offered to share their taxi with us. Thank you jim and Jeanie!
Much love all
x
P.S There is now a comments box on the blog page!