Algeciras - Ronda - Laroles (Sierra Nevada)

The breakfast in the hotel Reina Christina I already know from the arrival. When packing the bike, I meet an Austrian, who has traveled for a month in Morocco and is now on his journey back home. He speaks of riding via Ronda, of which I have already heard from the Englishmen I met on my ride through southern Spain. Spontaneously I recalculate my route and decide to ride via Ronda too. For today I have no destination and I will have to look for a hotel on the way.

The road to Ronda is pretty nice. Ronda itself is known by the gorge that divides the town. It's crowded with tourists. I do a little tour, I miss the motivation in the heat for more. I'll have a snack and ride on soon. The further route leads towards the northwest. I arrive at a very secluded reservoir. From there it's not far to the Caminito del Rey, a via ferrata famous for its dangerousness, recently reopened completely renovated. For a limited number of visitors per day, the path, which no longer requires special climbing skills, is open to the public. I can see a spectacular part of the walk in the rocks with a bridge over the gorge. Already very impressive. If I come to this area again, then I will go this path for sure. You have to register months before on the Internet. For this year (as of 2.6.2015) it is fully booked until September. Probably it will be closed in October already ...

I decide to ride along Malaga on the highway as fast as possible along the coast with it's ugly buildings, then turn off towards the Sierra Nevada, where I have some nice roads again.

At some point I look on the map and decide to ride towards Laroles, where I find a nice place to stay (Hotel Real de Laroles-Nevada). Already during the ride I had a strange feeling in some curves and the air pressure of the rear tire seemed low when I parked the bike. My host, Jose Ramon, also points that out. He used to ride a lot of bikes in the past. I decide to take care of it next morning, it's already too late anyway.

There's only one restaurant nearby which belongs to relatives of Jose Ramon. One knows each other here and more or less everyone is somehow related to everyone in Laroles.

A German couple, Jutta and Arndt, who in the past days have hiked along a European hiking trail in the Sierra Nevada and are in the same hotel for the night, invite me to their table. It will be a funny evening with talking about travel experiences.