Caminito del Rey is a path built on the walls of the Gorge Desfiladero de los Gaitanes, among the towns of Ardales, Alora and Antequera, located in the centre of Malaga province. This walkway is over 3 kilometres long (plus 4,8 kilometres of acess). It is attached to the interior rock of a canyon, with parts where the width is barely of 1 metre and it reaches heights of up to 105 metres above the river.
With the passage of time, Caminito suffered a serious deterioration: almost the whole path lacked of handrails and there were parts which had collapsed, remaining only the support beam. All this factors contributed to create a dark legend, after several hikers passed away while trying to cross the path.
Construction works for restoring the trail began in 2014. A new walkway was built with wooden panels along the whole path. The restoring works were completed before the first quarter of 2015 and Caminito reopened in March of that same year, arousing great interest among the public.
Excursions can be made under previous request and Malaga county council (diputacion) has enabled a website to accomplish this purpose effectively. Nowadays, a private company is in charge of managing and selling tickets for Caminito del Rey, which must be purchased in advance.
Once you have obtained the tickets, either through the Internet or through any other means, you must remember to be there at least one hour before the start of the trip. This is because you must park your car near the northern entrance (next to the restaurant “El Kiosko”). After you have parked your car, you will need to walk for 2,7km through a forest track full of rocks, roots and potholes which you will need to avoid. It is possible to park the car near the information point (there’s a parking lot for 2€) and from there, the signs will guide you to a narrow cave with a length of 150 metres. After getting out of the cave, you will need to walk 1,5 km in order to reach the northern entrance.
From the southern exit to the parking lot there is, at least, 2 kilometres plus a half kilometre more until the bus stop.