Walk this way

THE project to install an extensive walkway at the bottom of the Tajo gorge in Ronda is still alive, despite a series of ups and downs since the idea was first mooted several years ago. The plan is to offer some of the 500,000 tourists who visit the site each year an alternative view of the 120-metre deep chasm and Puente Nuevo bridge.

Following a €300,000 grant from the Malaga Provincial Council, and supported by a favourable report from the Andalucian Mediterranean Basin hydrological unit, which sagely noted that the walkway should be raised high enough above the river to avoid people being swept away during rainy spells, the local council was eventually forced to return the money after submitting incomplete documentation to the Junta de Andalucia regional government, who refused to grant an extension.

Provincial president Elias Bendodo reaffirmed his commitment, announcing he would re-examine the funding issue in the event of a green light from the Junta. “We’ll continue to invest in Ronda!” he whooped. “We’re talking to the mayor to recover a project I believe will be a great attraction, as if it were the gateway to the Tajo.”

In principle, the walkway would measure 327 metres in length and bring tourism to the Ocho Caños neighbourhood but the Junta has stipulated it must have minimal impact on the aesthetic beauty of the gorge.