Ronda is built on both sides of a gorge, and nobody quite believes it until they stand on the bridge. The Tajo, a cleft some hundred metres deep, cuts the town in two, and the Guadalevín river runs along its bottom. The Puente Nuevo, a tall stone bridge finished in the late eighteenth century after earlier collapses, joins the old Moorish quarter to the newer town on the other side, and the views from the viewpoints around it, down the cliff and out over the plain, are among the best in Andalusia.
The town has a long past. The Romans and then the Moors settled the rocky platform, and Ronda was a stronghold of the Muslim rulers until it fell to the Catholic monarchs in 1485. The old Arab baths, among the best preserved in Spain, still lie below the old town. The bullring, one of the oldest in the country, is the home of the Ronda school of bullfighting, which shaped the modern tradition. Writers and artists have always liked it: Hemingway set scenes of For Whom the Bell Tolls here, and Orson Welles loved it so much that his ashes were buried in a ranch nearby.
For a rider, Ronda is a crossroads of great roads. The route from San Pedro de Alcántara on the coast climbs through cork oak and pine in a long series of bends, and is one of the favourite roads of Andalusian motorcyclists. To the north-west the road toward Grazalema and the Puerto del Boyar winds through the Sierra de Grazalema, with limestone cliffs, griffon vultures and white villages on the hillsides. The surface is generally good but can be slippery after rain, and the mountain wind can blow hard.
The town has thirty-six thousand people and every service: fuel, restaurants, hotels and tapas bars. The local food includes oxtail stew, rabo de toro, and robust mountain dishes such as partridge, game and chorizo, and the wines of the Serranía de Ronda are increasingly good. The old town is cobbled and steep, so park at the edge.
Spring and autumn give the best conditions. July and August are hot, with crowds, so go early in the morning, while the light on the gorge is clearest and the day-trip buses have not yet arrived. The ride continues through the White Villages.