Are you brave enough for this?

[Subvet]

I think I'm a pretty brave guy. At least I call it brave; others call it stupid. Anyway, I'm not sure I'm brave enough (or stupid enough) to hike the "Caminito del Rey." http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZmDhRvvs5Xw. For the best quality click on the "watch in high quality" link under the video area.

[Michael Emrys]

No f***ing way! I couldn't even watch more than half of the vid (in low qual yet) without getting the willies and having to quit. You'd have to be some kind of desperate lunatic to try that. I'd rather climb Everest.

Where is this place anyway? The name is Spanish, but that still leaves a lot of possibilities. Looks like it might be someplace in the Andes, I suppose. I wonder why that path was built in the first place and then allowed to get into such bad shape.

Michael

[dieseltaylor]

The walkway has now gone many years without maintenance, and is in a highly deteriorated and dangerous state. It is one meter (3 feet) in width, and is over 200 meters (700 feet) above the river. Nearly all of the path has no handrail. Some parts of the concrete walkway have completely collapsed and all that is remaining is the steel beam originally in place to hold it up and the wire that follows most the path. One can latch onto the wire to keep from falling. 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.

The Way of the King is a step constructed in the walls of the Defile of the Gaitanes in the Spurt, near Álora (Malaga). One is a peatonal step of 3 km with long sections with a width of hardly 1 m. hanging up to 100 m.s of height on the river, in practically vertical walls. At the moment one is very deteriorated, almost all the route is without railing and is segments that have been colapsado, being left only the support beam

So the next question is why was it built : )

Wiki provides - and someone has done the game !

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caminito_del_Rey

[Other Means]

I'm certainly brave enough to watch the video. Sure, I have to hang on to my chair and look away frequently but it still counts.

Building that walkway was a feat and a half.

I've seen mountain riding on tiny goat paths on t'internet. Insane.

[Dogface]

Ahh, a pretty video and all but there was a safety line attached to the rock face to his left. You can see some people moving their biners along the line about 1/2 way through. However it is tough to say if the camera man was using one. However IIRC the camera is always in the hand that is away from the rock face so I would guess he is using one. All in all a cool place and a nice video.

[Affentitten]

I drove the vehicular equivalent in northern Spain earlier this year. It wasn't too bad....until you met someone driving the other way.

[flamingknives]

I think that it is quite easy to say that the camera operator was not using the safety line. If he were, there would be fairly regular pauses as he unclipped and reclipped. Plus he passes a number of people with fluidity that implies that he is not attached, including one guy who is attached.

He's probably got one hand on the wire/rockface though. Mad not to.

Using the safety line, it's pretty tame. Without, you're putting alot of trust in eighty-year-old concrete and steel tube.

[Guest Guest]

deleted per user request

[Boris London]

I could do it but it would be sweaty palms and tingle feet

flash game

[Flanker15]

Looks fun! Bust out a Prince of Persia on that trails ass!

Would be pretty fun to be the guy who used go up and open the flow gate every day (although it probably wasn't all broken then).

[xwormwood]

Those guys that fight the Americans in Afghanistan knowing they're going to die are brave. This isn't brave, this is stupid.

Quite the opposite is true, dear friend.

[costard]

Quite the opposite is true, dear friend.

Sometimes - the spectrum of stupid takes in intelligent , that of bravery cowardice. Apples and oranges, yeah? Both are descriptions of behaviour - inferred characteristics. The reality - ok, the simplest and truest observation of their behaviour - is that these men fight. We'd ought to hear them explain the facts behind their decision to fight before justly ascribing a motive, or reason.

I suspect this canyon walk could be appealing for many of the same reasons for which men fight - the brisk adrenalin of risk, calculated and avoided. The tinge of fear that lends itself to our satisfaction with this world. The reward of completing the exercise.

I reckon you'd be feeling pretty good by the end of that little stroll - you might even see a mountain goat.