I freely admit I am hopeless at reading maps. Even Google Maps lets me down every now and then. As you know, Mick is not happy unless he has a map, but even he has been challenged in Ronda.

The reason… the maps that are provided by the tourism office are pretty basic and none of them give any indication of the steepness of some of the roadways.

This is one of the original streets into the city once you drive or walk across the Old Bridge. We watched a number of cars drive up here. It looks pretty tough on the suspension.

We headed off this morning in search of the Water Mine – we wanted to also visit the Arab Baths but thought we’d need a separate time for that. These two places we knew were near to each other, but I could NOT work out how to get to them. And, the signs in Ronda did not help at all. We walked to the old part of town this morning and Mick was pretty confident he knew where to find the Palacio Del Rey Moro, which was where we could visit the Water Mine. We found a tourist sign (right across from the hotel you are going to stay at Barrie and Robyn) on an intersection to a road Mick was sure would lead us there, but the sign had no mention of these two places. Undeterred, we walked down there to find exactly what we were after.

But, we were too early so we kept walking a short way further and spotted the Arab Baths down below us, along with the older bridges in the town. Just what we had been looking for. No signs had helped us; this time when we might have been getting lost, we actually had stumbled onto the right place.

Feeling excited, we headed down the rocky footpath. As you can see, I finally convinced Mick to buy one of the Spanish hats. Much better than the old EMS cap he had bought with him. (Sorry Thomas)

This place was fascinating – and again, we had this tourist spot to ourselves.

These baths were similar in design to Roman Baths, except the Arabs used the steam to sweat out toxins as opposed to heating water for soaking in. They are thought to be amongst the most complete remains of baths of this type. We were able to watch a short animated film in English describing how the baths were built and used. It was fascinating. Well worth the descent, but the climb back up was a bit tougher.

By this time, the Water Mine was open, so we paid our €5 entry fee each and enjoyed the cooling effect of the beautiful garden.

We were prepared for lots of steps (Mick was not looking forward to these either Bel) to get us to the bottom of the gorge where the water mine had been, but 231 steps down…….

… was nowhere near as hard as 231 step back. The added challenges for the step workout were the occasional railing that looked like it might be useful until you grabbed it only to find it was no longer connected to the wall – a previous tourist (years ago) obviously had grabbed a little too hard; wet spots from leaking / seeping fine holes; and the odd cracked or wobbly floor tiling.

But, the views were well worth it.

When we made it back to the top, feeling pretty pleased with ourselves, we were told the exit was about 10 steps DOWN into a street we then needed to walk back up to head back to town. Ouch! So make that 251 steps!

But, while I joke about us getting down and back, it must have been a terribly hard life for the slaves, who 700 years ago had to line those steps and pass bags of water from the bottom to the top.

We took a slight detour before heading home and visited a museum built to display the artwork of the Ronda-born artist Joaquín Peinado. The beautiful old building used for this museum has been beautifully restored. Not only was it air conditioned, it had great “servicios”. The artwork was not really my cup of tea, but I was impressed by the building. This time we were not the only ones there. There was a group of about a dozen 8-10 year-old children, on a rather poorly-supervised excursion, who were running amok. Happy days! Not our responsibility on this occasion.

As we walked home, we noticed that the buses had arrived in Ronda, bringing loads of tourists in for the day. This was our cue to head home for our siesta and leave it to them to enjoy.