ANDALUCIAN: DRIVING TO RONDA

Towards the end of February I spent four warm sunny days in the south of Spain. I was the guest of my friend of some forty years, Tony Merrington. 

Tony lives in Nueva Andalucía. This is an area just west of Marbella and inland from posh Puerto Banús.  The house looks over a lovely golf course.This area is covered with golf courses and known as ‘Golf Valley’. 

Nueva Andalusia:  The view from the house

All the villas and apartments are based on traditional Andalusian architecture and design. And, perhaps because of the golf, the district is blessed with many exciting looking trees and green spaces. Very different from Blighty's winter landscape. 

Each day Tony and I drove up into the mountains and caught up on old times and recalled too many crazy escapades. 

Mountains and fields in Andalucia

Ronda is situated about 750 m (2,460 feet.) above sea level. The Guadalevín River runs through the city, dividing it in two. The river cuts the steep, 100-plus-meter-deep El Tajo canyon above, which the city perches.  Walking out of the town we looked up to see The Puente Nuevo straddling the canyon.

EL TAJO CANYON

COFFEE OVER LOOKING THE CANYON

Ernest Hemingway spent many summers in Ronda. His novel For Whom the Bell Tolls describes the execution of Nationalist sympathisers early in the Spanish Civil War. The Republicans murder the Nationalists by throwing them from cliffs in an Andalusian village, and Hemingway allegedly based the account on killings that took place in Ronda at the cliffs of El Tajo.

As we looked out to the west the afternoon sun was high, warming olive groves fields and fir trees.