El Caminito del Rey (The King’s pathway, often shortened to El Camino del Rey) is a walkway, now fallen into disrepair, pinned along the steep walls of a narrow gorge in El Chorro, near Alora in Spain.
The walkway has now gone many years without maintenance, and is in a highly deteriorated and dangerous state. Some parts of the walkway have completely collapsed and have been replaced by a beam and a metallic wire on the wall.
Many people have lost their lives on the walkway in recent years. After four people died in two accidents in 1999 and 2000, the local government closed the entrances. However, adventurous tourists still find their way into the walkway.
Cripes. I have a fear of heights and parts of this video really freak me out.
More information on El Caminito del Ray.
Another well documented attempt at the Darwin Award.
How freaky is it to be standing on the walkway when someone comes up behind you — and then steps around you. You don’t need a fear of heights to be freaked out by this; an attachment to life in general will do. Totally F’n Nuts!
El Caminito del Rey shortened to
El Camino del Rey. .
Maybe they use a smaller font too.
It’s a shame they let it deteriorate. It looks like it would have been a fun walk.
OMG! Great video!!
wow, its like an unreal tournament map…
i need a flak cannon to walk up there.
and some super health…..
WoW! This video made me feel very old…………..and much smarter.
The pathway was built from 1901 to 1905 for maintenance staff working on the hydroelectric system in the gorge. (Building it must have been even more fun than walking along it.) A private company is now planning to repair it and charge people an entrance fee.
*8 – Glassed enclosed with a 5 star restaurant and casino at the top I suspect.
#9: Glassed enclosed with a 5 star restaurant and casino at the top I suspect.
Probably not. A glass enclosure would be too hot and the whole area is a nature reserve where building is forbidden, so no restaurant or casino.
hey man.. nice shot
Super good camera work.. Scary as all get out too..
Amazing. I bet they told their mother they were just “going out for a walk with friends…”
Last time I was in Spain (1995) my father and uncle took me for about a 2 mile walk along “The King’s Way.” Somewhere I still have a VHS tape of our walk. It really was amazing, although I don’t believe I full appreciated the danger I was in at age 12. Even then there were holes in the stone floor that you would need to step over or around.
One neat thing was that there were trains that would drive by on the opposite cliff face, and we would wave to them.
I (used to) hike quite a bit on precipitous trails. Quite dangerous when looking back on it–but I would never walk on a man made platform hanging over -nothing- that had holes in it. That is “trusting” the thing is not ready to give way. Lazy to not have a safety line–or maybe they watched a big fat guy cross over just before filming??? I’d do it then, but not unless.
It goes back to our valuable discussion on black holes. Probably nothing bad will happen, but what is the benefit of success vs the cost of failure?
The Kings pathway is the only access to a very popular rock climbing area, so some of those people are probably climbers.
El Diablo del Rey .. is a better name. Heck if the town wants to repair it. Sell *required* life insurance policies $25 per day. Half goes into the fund to pay out when the tourist actually dies and the other half goes to repairs. Position a policeman on each end to catch anyone who hasn’t paid and charge $100. That will pay for the repairs over time!
Is just me, or does this look like a sequel to Myst?
It’s not the height you fear, hhopper, it’s the *edge*. The ancient Greeks knew this – the ‘acros’ in acrophobia means ‘edge’. I have acrophobia as well, and I’m OK with heights as long as I’m away from the edge.
Wow… I felt like I was watching a replay of some FPS’s in the 1990’s. I can’t remember which one had a narrow walk down a gorge like this… Duke Nukem? Star Wars?
Ron Larson, I think you are referring to either Star Wars: Dark Forces or Jedi Knight. There were a couple of each and I don’t recall which one but it was excellent for its day.
Amazing vid! I bet the base jumpers love that place. You couldn’t drag me up there with a team of mules.
Unreal Tournament? Myst? Duke Nukem? No. This is Half-Life!
#19 I guess that’s why I’m afraid of the new Gillette razors.