When I read a list of the most dangerous hikes in the world, I was intrigued and challenged! Being of sound mind, I followed up on these hikes as they were made 'safe'. We hiked one of these, the Paiva walkways near Arouca which is SE of Porto. It was a beautiful, amazing, and tiring experience which we both enjoyed. For Spain, the list included the Caminito del Rey which was originally built in 1901 for workers to access the hydroelectric power plants including a dam. The original path was built of concrete laid on steel rails jutting out from the steep walls of a narrow gorge in the province of Malaga, near Ardales. Over time, the 3ft wide path deteriorated and whole sections were missing. Few of the handrails remained. After several deaths, the local government closed the path. But people continued to climb it, and die.
In 2011, the government decided to go all in, and rebuilt the trail with a museum and parking lot. Rebuilding required alpinists to help set the path and the renovated walkway opened in 2015. It is a bit less than 2 miles along the gorge. Interestingly - several movies have had scenes filmed here including Von Ryan's Express (before renovation). So, understandably, we HAD to hike it! And we were not disappointed.
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| beautiful countryside on way to Arouca from Granada |
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looking down on gorge and trail
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| hiker Turk |
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| water control |
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| see old trail remnants under new trail |
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| BIG holes in old trail |
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| hugging the walls. old trail below. Often a cable was attached to rock wall to hang on to. |
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| Veteran hikers! |
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| original bridge over gorge |
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| close up of train bridge in rocks |
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| deep gorge! Train bridge in rocks |
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| on cable bridge - Turk is afraid of heights!!! |
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| a view of the end of the elevated trail from road |
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| back on the highway to Malaga... whaaattt???? |
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