Teetering along a crumbling walkway over 100 metres high, a group of intrepid climbers carefully inch their way across what has beendubbed the most dangerous path in the world.
And they’re not alone. Adrenaline-junkies have been flocking to southern Spain to experience the 110-year-old El Caminito Del Reybefore work begins to refurbish it next year.
Companies have now begun offering unofficial tours after a video of a walker tackling the hair-raising trail went viral on YouTube.
And you don’t need to be an experienced climber either, the only requirements are that walkers should be at least twelve years old and have a good head for heights.
The trail, also known as the King’s Pathway, was originally built in 1905 for workers to travel between two hydroelectric power plantsbut was closed-off in 2000 after two walkers fell to their deaths.
It snakes its way along cliff edges high up in El Chorro Gorge, thirty miles from Malaga.
Much of the one-metre-wide walkway is crumbing away with rusting supports, gaping holes, no handrails and sections that have completely fallen down.
A makeshift wire has now been attached to the rock face which walkers and climbers can clip themselves on to in order to have some degree of security – but many still prefer not to use any safety equipment at all.
Work is now due to start on an 8.3 million project to make the pathway safe again and attract more tourists to the area.
It will take three years to re-construct and will see the pathway completely rebuilt with handrails, protective barriers, lighting and a visitor’s centre.
One climber on the route last week said: ‘It’s a shame they’re going to fix the path.
‘It will sanitise it too much and take the thrill out of it.
‘It’s free for us to go on right now but I’m sure they’ll make us pay to use it in the future.’ (Daily Mail)
《字詞解析》
本文中出現的 path, pathway, trail 和 walkway，指的都是「步道，小徑」。這是英文寫作慣用的技巧，亦即儘可能使用同義詞，以增加文章的深度和力道，同時避免同一字詞出現多次、讓讀者心生厭煩的情況發生。
teeter － (v.) 蹣跚而行，搖搖晃晃。Teetering along a crumbling walkway over 100 metres high (沿著一條逐漸脫落、離地面 100 公尺高的步道蹣跚而行) 為分詞構句，修飾主詞 a group of intrepid climbers。
crumbling － (adj.) 逐漸碎裂、脫落的。
intrepid － (adj.) 勇敢的；大膽的。
inch － (v.) 使緩慢地移動。
dub － (v.) 把…叫做；號稱。
Adrenaline junkie － (n.) 喜歡冒險的人；喜歡從事危險活動和運動 (如極限運動) 的人。
flock － (v.) 蜂擁。
El Caminito Del Rey － (n.) 國王 (登山) 步道。這是西班牙文，意思就是第 5 段的 King’s Pathway (國王步道)，或更精確地說是 King’s Little Pathway (國王的小步道)。
refurbish － (v.) 翻新；翻修。
tackle － (v.) 征服。
hair-raising － (adj.) 令人毛骨悚然的；驚險的。
go viral － (v.) 在網路上爆紅。
hydroelectric power plant － (n.) 水力發電廠。
snake － (v.) 蜿蜒。
rusting － (adj.) 鏽蝕的。
support － (n.) 支撐物，支柱。
gaping － (adj.) (孔或空間) 很大的。
handrail － (n.) (樓梯等的) 扶手，欄杆。
section － (n.) 地板。
makeshift － (adj.) 臨時代用的；權宜的。
clip － (v.) 扣住。
shame － (n.) 可惜；遺憾。
sanitise － (v.) 消毒；淨化。
thrill － (n.) 刺激。
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