Well, after a hectic summer at work, and the sudden change of weather from "ooh it's raining! Ooh, it's windy! Ooh, there's a bit of su.... oh no, my mistake, it's raining again..." to "Ok, I admit it, it's Autumn" Lise and I returned to Spain to try and catch a few days of sun-baked limestone, with our eyes on the magificent El Chorro gorge.
However, the weather had other ideas, of which more later...
We discovered an amazing hotel, the Hotel El Juncal just outside of Ronda. It's all very stylish, in a black, white, chrome and glass, Phillip Stark kind of way, so it felt deliciously naughty tramping back in wearing our mud-caked mountain gear, but the staff were very friendly and helpful, and their command of European languages put us to shame.
The main thing, though, was the food. Ohhhhh, the food! It's a gastronomic paradise, with its own vegetable garden and vineyard, and a chef who really knows how to cook. There's no menu - well, there is, but it has no choices, the chef merely publishes what he is going to create - but my god it's good. Favourite dish had to be the Iberian pork, and the curiously-named "sky bacon" dessert. The in-house-produced red wine is really drinkable too. Highly recommended.
Just a couple of things to note about getting there:
The directions on the website are really hard to follow. What you need to do is go to Ronda, then from the big roundabout on the north-east side of town (by the big supermarket) take the El Burgo road (A366, IIRC). Just after the hospital, only a mile or so out of Ronda you'll see a big gate at a little turning on the right. Take the turning, but don't go through the gate, turn left as soon as you've turned off the main road (like, ten yards in) - you'll also see a big white sign a way back from the road that says "El Juncal". Aim for that! It's a shame you can't see the sign from the other direction... took us a couple of hours to figure that one out!
There are two main ways to Ronda from Malaga airport - along the coast and up, or up to El Burgo and across. Either way, the drive is stunning, with some jaw-dropping views, but the road from El Burgo is poor. We couldn't get above 20km/hr for much of it! Stick to the main roads. (cue Brian Glover voice: "stick to the roads, lads - stay off the moors, and may god be with you...")
