Millennial Extremes 2: The Most Dangerous Path

Caminito del Rey: Then. All Image Sources: Euro Weekly News.

Pushing limits and crossing boundaries is typical of Millennial life in work - and play.  This is a good example. The Caminito del Rey, or the 'King's Little Pathway,' in Spain attracts hikers and climbers the world over precisely because it is considered one of the most dangerous paths on the planet.

Caminito del Rey: Now. 

See a video made by a hiker, below. What strikes me is that it looks exactly like a survival horror video game (someone in the Youtube comments claimed it reminded them of Resident Evil 4, without the zombies). But it's real. This horror genre reflects the crumbling infrastructure, built in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries (or earlier), which surrounds and haunts us at the turn of the Millennium. Contrary to what people thought in the twentieth century, the Millennium is not all bright and shiny, seamless and perfect.

When you see the pictures of the path then and now, the photographs from the past show the construction as new-fangled, well-made and modern. The photos from the present look like an archaeological site - they show how neglect in the present has made a ruin of our past. The past is new; the present is old. This a theme common in Urbex, another Millennial reflection of how buildings, bridges and roads have been allowed to crumble by the generations that acted as stewards of the developed world since World War II. We are surrounded by the wreckage of the past, and struggle to negotiate our way through it.

Caminito del Rey: Then.

There are, incidentally, some plans this summer to fix this path, which was constructed from 1901 to 1905. With or without repairs, the danger and thrill of walking this razor's edge attracts many explorers. Reports of mortal accidents make the site even more popular.

Caminito del Rey: Now.

A site that recently profiled this video described the path as follows:

This walkway now serves as an aproach to Makinodromo, the famous climbing sector of El Chorro in Spain's Andalucia. And it is the hairiest path. The area of El Chorro situated in the south of Spain is renowned amongst travelers and mountain hikers for its stunning scenery and climbs, yet this is not the main attraction on offer, El Chorro is host to one of the most dangerous walkways in the world, built by workers to transport materials between the Chorro and Gaitanejo Falls.

Video Source: Youtube.

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