The world’s most dangerous path.
The world’s most treacherous, the world’s most deadly.
This got all those descriptors and more.
This is El Caminito Del Rey, near Malaga,
on the southern coast of Spain.
And, well, once this was the world’s most dangerous path,
or certainly something very close to it.
It was built between 1901 and 1905 by sailors and prisoners,
who were either used to working at height,
or didn’t really have much of a choice.
And it was used to get people between two hydroelectric power stations, and yes,
apparently there were hydroelectric power stations in 1900s Spain.
It surprised me too.
It was named El Caminito del Rey, the king’s little pathway,
after it was walked by King Alfonso the 13th.
But it didn’t look like this back then.
It was just some metal, hammered into the rock at 45°,
and then some concrete put on top of it.
And maybe there’d be a bit of a handrail or a safety wire,
but it was certainly not safe by modern standards.
And over time, the path fell into disuse,
and it fell into disrepair,
and then just started to fall apart.
But that didn’t stop thrill seekers.
As the internet and the web started to spread news of it,
this attracted people from all over the world to come and walk
this crumbling but apparently-just-about-safe walkway.
And there are photos, all over the web, of 2005 and 2006,
of people climbing onto safety wires and walking across very narrow bits of metal
to try to get to the next bit.
But that’s not what it looks like now.
The trouble was: people kept falling to their deaths,
at the rate of one every couple of years.
And eventually the local government decided, well, no,
this is enough.
We are closing this.
Which of course just made the problem worse,
because now thrill seekers want to do the most dangerous path in the world…
that had been banned.
So eventually they found a solution: build a brand-new path,
on top of the ruins of the old one,
and build it to 21st-century standards with 21st-century technology.
There are safety helmets now.
There are handrails, there’s wire,
there is a guard at the entrance checking tickets.
And there is wi-fi and toilets at each end.
And you know what?
It works.
It’s still thrilling, but it’s also safe, and now:
there are a heck of a lot more people who have access to this incredible site and the
views.
But online?
This is still the most dangerous path in the world.
You will still see the old blog posts from the 2000s,
you will still see the old image sharing sites and YouTube videos from five years ago saying,
"oh yeah, this is still dangerous.
This is still terrifying."
And of course nobody bothers fact checking online,
so, oh, this still gets forwarded everywhere.
But this isn’t that dangerous any more.
It used to be as dangerous as, say, a base jump,
it used to attract thrill seekers,
the real adrenaline junkies... and now?
It attracts tourists who are okay with heights.
And I reckon that’s better.
Even if the click bait might not be true any more,
a heck of a lot more people have access to what is an incredible place.