Spain’s Scariest Hiking Trail Now Available On Google Street View [Video]
For those with a head for heights, “El Caminito del Rey” is a real life adventure. However, for others who get dizzy looking down from the heights, Google Street View and Google Earth offer the perfect alternative.
“El Caminito del Rey” (or the King’s Little Pathway in English) is a hiking trail that winds around sheer rock walls above a gorge in El Chorro, near Álora in the Málaga province of southern Spain.
While it was first created to allow workers access to the hydroelectric power plants at Gaitanejo Falls and Chorro Falls, it eventually became popular with hikers and rock climbers as a scary and scenic aerial walkway.
Created between 1901 and 1905, this scenic route got its name when King Alfonso XIII himself walked the pathway to inaugurate the then new Conde del Guadalhorce dam back in 1921.
The concrete and metal pathway eventually fell into disrepair and after five people died traversing it between 1999 and 2000, it was closed to the public.
As can be seen in the photo on the right, some daredevils, mainly rock climbers, still walked the dangerous walk, but only at their own risk.
Eventually it was decided by the Andalusian Government to renovate and recreate the winding walkways and the new “El Caminito del Rey” officially opened in March 2015. More recently, the whole hiking route was uploaded to Google Street View
Da un paseo virtual por el sendero más peligroso del mundo http://t.co/ItaK3EngXi
— El Huffington Post (@ElHuffPost) July 21, 2015
Tweet translation: Take a virtual tour of the world’s most dangerous trail
While it is free to visit it is, however, necessary to pre-book your spot on the walking trail, as crowds must be kept to a limit, but anyone can now walk the walk, winding around on a pathway no wider than 3-feet, in places 328 feet high and a whole five miles long. All the way along, there are views down to the Guadalhorce River below as well as the surrounding rugged and beautiful scenery of the area.
However, those not planning on visiting Spain can now, thanks to Google and as reported on the Local, do the entire King’s Little Pathway online using Google Street View.
With paths only a maximum of 3-feet wide, you are probably wondering how on earth they got the Google Street View car around the pathway. Well the answer is they couldn’t, so Google used “the trekker”, which is basically a backpack with a camera system perched on top, allowing the operators to move through narrow areas only accessible on foot.
Google Street View permite recorrer el sendero Caminito del Rey (Málaga) http://t.co/wSuJ251oh2 pic.twitter.com/8G9b7UVcrQ
— Portaltic.es (@Portaltic) July 20, 2015
Tweet translation: Google Street View allows you to travel the path of Caminito del Rey (Málaga)
Of interest to note, this is not the only recent project captured in Spain by the Google Street View cameras, as they are gradually giving worldwide public access to all the country’s iconic wonders, including the Sagrada Familia temple in Barcelona, the Alhambra Moorish hilltop complex in Granada and other magnificent monuments and walks.
Experience the now safe, but still scary, “El Caminito del Rey” in the video below or head over to Google Street View to experience the walkway at your own pace.
Talking of touring, the Inquisitr recently reported on the various scenic locations in Spain and other countries used in the popular HBO series Game of Thrones.
[Images: Featured image and view of Guadalhorce River CC BY-SA 3.0 MichiNerja – Pathway in disrepair CC BY-SA 3.0 Valdilu – Pathway showing river below CC BY-SA 3.o Andrzej Otr?bski]
