Day 7 Valley of Tears to Ronda

10.02.2016 20:00

Today was a very short day hiking-wise but I feel totally worn out nevertheless.

In spite of the continuous drizzling and the heavy wind that made me worry about my tent, I slept quite well. That means I only woke about about 10 times until it was morning ;D

Unfortunately the weather hadn't changed at all, it seemed as if the clouds would stay in here forever. I had breakfast inside the tent and really didn't want to go outside, but still I was ready to go at 9:15 am.

I must've been walking slightly downhill for about an hour, when the dirt road started to climb up again. A sign said it was still 90 minutes until Montejaque, and I felt like I didn't have much water left. Duh. 

Again, like he was sent by the gods of the GR7, a man just got into his jeep as I passed by the probably only farm in the whole valley, and stopped as I waved to him. His car was a mess - if I understood him correctly, he usually transports animals in it, but I found some space on the co-drivers seat.

Again, I felt like my Spanish skills had improved over night, so that we had a fun conversation while driving. When I complained about the rain, he said that in that valley, the rain never stopped, and that here would be sunshine in Montejaque for sure - he should be right. 

When I pulled out my phone to take some pictures of the village, breathtakingly nestled into the surrounding mountains, it was turned off. That was surprising, because the battery had been at 50% just an hour before. I put it away again, just enjoying the views all by myself.

As I told him that I wanted to stay in Ronda for the day, the man offered to take me further, some 5 kilometers before the town. The sun was shining now, but I really just wanted to have a shower, so I agreed. He had a scale in his car and I asked him if we could weigh my backpack, because I still didn't know how heavy it was - it showed 11,70 kg. That surprised me even more when I found out several minutes later that my water was empty, which means the backpack is at least 15kg with water reservoirs filled.

He dropped me off at the main street to Ronda, which was obviously terrible to walk on, and it looked as if it would take ages, so I decided to hitchhike the rest of the way as well. After a few minutes two older guys picked me up who completely freaked out when they heard I had camped in the Valley of Tears all by myself. They said it was muy peligroso, but then corrected themselves, saying that actually in Andalusia people were alright, but they wouldn't say the same for the rest of Spain, haha.

They dropped me off near the center of Ronda, where I, still in my mud-covered rain trousers, felt utterly displaced between all the stylish Asian tourists. My phone had some serious issues and wouldn't respond to me, while the flash light was shining all the time, so I asked my way to the tourist information, where they told me how to find the hostal I'm staying at.

There I paid 25€ to have my very own room with my very own bed and my very own shower - just to be told that it wasn't ready yet. Oh my god. Dirty and stinky and hungry and tired as I was, I went to the supermarket to kill another 45 minutes until the room was ready. Obviously I got way more stuff than I can eat in one afternoon, so my backpack might be even a bit heavier during the next days.

After the heaven-like shower, I finally managed to turn on my phone, the flash light still on. The internet recommended to take a photo with flash to fix the problem, but it didn't help.. Now the camera doesn't work at all anymore, so I guess this is the last photo you will see during this journey. Enjoy :D

I only made from the first to the second pin to the left - the rest was another way by car.