El Chorro

Today being Anne's birthday, we thought we would take a drive out for lunch to a restaurant in El Chorro, a place we visited in September last year.

The picture above is of a small waterfall we passed along the way.

We diverted slightly onto a road signposted "Bobastro", which is the site of an ancient deserted village containing a church which had been cut directly out of the rock. On we drove until we came to a reservoir, pictured right, and ultimately to a dead end. However, not a sign of the village or any signage indicating where the village was. So a little disappointing but the drive was still worth it for the views at the end of the road.

The picture right overlooks El Chorro and the reservoir from the viewpoint at the end of the road with the picture below looking down the valley towards Alora.

The picture right is of the "Garganta del Chorro", a gorge in the rock through which the Guadalhorce river passes through. My previous post also records that this was the place where part of the 1965 film "Von Ryan's Express" was filmed. In the film, the rail bridge pictured below had been blocked by a German aircraft rocket attack and the prisoners, led by Frank Sinatra, had to escape along the wooden walkway that skirts the mountain and then through the wooden bridge above the gorge.

Just out of interest, the water level should be covering the darkish grey area at the bottom of the gorge, which is about four to five metre's in depth, an indication of how desperate we are for sustained rainfall.

Anyway, after all that, we arrived at the restaurant and it was closed. Not to be thwarted, we headed back along the road home to the Chinese restaurant in Campillos and had a smashing meal there.

Many thanks to all for Anne's cards and best wishes to Dave, Heather and Sean who at last should be moving into their house this week.

Linked posts:El Chorro
The Lake District