Southwards through Spain

The latest leg in our Bimbling Journey has been southwards through Spain. On the 1st of December we left family in Saint Jean de Luz (south west France), reaching the Mediterranean coast on the 21st December, before riding on to Almería, where we arrived on the 10th of January. Throughout this we’ve seen changing landscapes, architecture and history, which we thought we’d share with you.

Disclaimer: This is a tiny, tiny snippet of the things we’ve seen and by no means includes all that we enjoyed or took special note of in our time here.

The north - St Jean de Luz to Pamplona

This section was characterised by mountains, we were on the edge of the Pyrenees and they made their presence known. Trees and woodlands covered the slopes and farm buildings were dotted alongside the tracks and trails we traversed. The towns were nestled alongside mountains and the snow-capped peaks loomed large in the distant view.

No matter what size the towns or villages were, every place had its Pelota court or Frontoi. These were often huge covered structures, open on at least one side and commanded a presence. At times these provided us with cover and entertainment. Sam even got his audio fix from the lively slapback delay from the whacks of the ball. Though Pelota is generally played with bare or taped hands, wooden bats (pala) or curved baskets (chistera/cesta)…not tennis racquets, as below.

Alongside the free availability of community sports facilities, travel through the northern areas was made particularly easy by the frequency and availability of public water sources. In every village and town, often beside the children’s play area or in the main square there were regularly one or more public fountains. Some were simple and others more elaborate but we never had trouble filling up our bottles for drinking, cooking and washing.

We loved the forest and the mountainous tracks which led us into wilderness and nature with vultures soaring overhead, red kites tumbling through the sky and the sound of distant sheep-bells. On particularly difficult climbs, more vultures seemed to circle. Could they sense a potential opportunity?

The middle - Pamplona to Teruel

As we left the more mountainous Basque Country, the landscape began to flatten out and the views began to stretch further in front of us. This is not to say that there weren’t hills but Pamplona already sits at 450 metres above sea level (the highest village in Britain, so says Wikipedia, is Flash at 465 m.a.s.l.) By the time we got to Teruel we were up at 915 m.a.s.l., having passed through the town of Soria at 1,063 m.a.s.l. We travelled through this elevated plateau seeing a huge variety of land uses, architecture and beautiful rural towns.

In the interior, the primary land use was agriculture and farming although it was noticeably drier than further north. Many of our camp spots were amongst rosemary, thyme and lavender which were really fragrant in the evening when we were setting up.

Vineyards, olive trees and stone fruit trees lined the road and crept up the valleys on terraces. We remarked at the effort to care for these trees through the harvesting, pruning, planting and watering, never mind the initial construction of the terraces to be able to establish such agriculture.

There were plenty of options for getting off the road and exploring more rural routes by following the Camino del Cid, which took us along some fantastic routes through the countryside, making use of many of the old railway routes. I will be putting some more detail into the routing options in another blog post (here it is…)

In the drier climate of the interior, we discovered the use of caves as dwellings. Cut into the rock, caves are relatively easy and cheap to create, can be adapted to suit the resident’s needs (just excavate another room) and remain at a comfortable and steady temperature. These dwellings varied from very simple single rooms to complex structures on many different levels.

The use of caves also stretched to hermitages and a large cavernous chapel was excavated in Soria.

Modern infrastructure was also very present in some areas including solar farms and wind farms. With so much land area, Spain can deploy these renewable energy schemes and some areas I assume will become too dry for agriculture in a changing climate.

We spotted graffiti, signs and posters protesting against the construction of new high speed railway lines through both the Basque Country and Navarra, and the scale of the project was enormous. We passed over a huge construction site carved through the landscape. In a photo it’s difficult to convey the true size of the hole but the diggers give a bit of an idea. No wonder people aren’t so happy about the damage this new infrastructure results in…though high speed rail can provide a great alternative to flying, so…

Let’s just hope the Spanish are making a better fist of it than the UK.

In the rural towns we noticed a large number of abandoned or unoccupied buildings. I’ve written a separate blog post on this (here’s that later post…) as it was very noticeable on our travels.

The south - Teruel to Valencia

Travelling south, small changes in the architecture began to hint at the Mudéjar (gothic and Islamic) influence. On small town churches, many of them had painted/glazed tiles on their spires, coloured in blues and greens. As we arrived at Teruel, the town was filled with Mudéjar architecture, ceramic tiles and bright colours. The details were extraordinary and the designers and builders went to great lengths to create such intricate patterns.

Following the Camino del Cid once more, we snaked our way through rural towns and villages. This section was far more wooded than the previous, which was a welcome change as pine trees offered both shade in the daytime and some shelter during the cold nights. Hills and mountains lined the valley as we descended several hundreds of metres towards Valencia and the Mediterranean Sea.

As soon as crossed into the municipality of Valencia we were hit by the smell of oranges. The orchards stretched for miles and miles and as far as the eye could see with luscious trees bursting with fruit.

There was more infrastructure and development along the way and sometimes our route was diverted as major works were undertaken along the route of the old railway. Replacement bridges on the main railway line led us on some, sometimes, circuitous diversions…

The Coast - Valencia to Almería

Valencia was a really interesting city with an huge amount of diversity in its architecture and areas. We took a few days off here over the Christmas period to explore the city, visiting the Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias with its incredible architecture that glistened in the winter sushine.

We also got ourselves lost in the little streets of El Cabanyal, the old fishing village, discovering small houses decorated with street art and tiled facades which made every house unique and distinct.

After Valencia, although we diverted inland on occasion, we generally stuck to the coast for this part. The undeveloped coast was absolutely stunning with cliffs, mountains and quiet winding roads to traverse it. The contrast of the dusty and dry land beside the cool blue of the Mediterranean was stark and we had plenty to look at as we rode the coastal roads with lots of other cyclists - though very few touring cyclists.

Every now and then we left nature and reached a town or developed area which offered all the usual tourist attractions of bars, ice cream shops and areas to park your motorhome. Around Carboneras we heard a lot of English and German speakers which was very different from the vast majority of our time in Spain. We have taken the more rural routes and less-trodden paths and have felt very welcomed within the more traditional villages and have so enjoyed experiencing Spanish culture.

When we decided to head south to escape the cold winter weather, we knew we wouldn’t be the only ones but we were a little surprised at the amount of motorhomes and live-in vehicles we came across. There were those parked in designated areas but an even greater number parked up in more rural areas and next to signs which explicitly stated that camping was not permitted. I do not wish to be too hypocritical here as we have wild camped in Spain where we know it is not allowed but we have left no trace, camped for only one night and have set up at sunset and left at sunrise. In my mind, this leaves little impression on the local people and other visitors. The impact of tens of vehicles parked on the edge of small towns beside remote beaches I have found quite jarring. These vehicles often caused explicit damage to the local environment, with some of the monster ex-military vehicles chewing up the route so badly that we regularly had to make detours. We did some muttering.

Roundup

We have met so many kind people throughout Spain. Their generosity and warmth (including their tolerance of my pidgin Spanish) has been memorable. Whether it was offering us a place to stay (see future blog post about Welcome to My Garden), meeting fellow travellers, or just a friendly “¡Buenos dias!” when we walk into a bar, we have been made to feel really welcome here.

What also sticks in my mind throughout this journey is the geology and how people are living and making use of the environment that this creates, from fertile orchards to stone-filled fields, stone buildings to dwellings in caves. The colours and sheer diversity (it is actually remarkably diverse) of the land around us has been very memorable.

Day to day costs have been generally cheaper than those in the UK and our budget has even stretched to accommodation with a roof on occasion! Bars and cafeterias offer well-priced meals and are frequent enough to take advantage of.

We entered Spain via the ferry to Santander which isn’t cheap but is a straightforward option from the UK. Bikes and ferries work well so this was the best option for us. We didn’t try bikes on trains as we had no need but The Man in Seat 61 may offer some information for this method.

The ability to swap riding at almost any point between on and off road has been a real treat. Using the multitude of gravel tracks and small roads available to us, we have loved exploring this country (although only a small part!) and we would recommend it to others who are looking for somewhere to ride in Europe.

Finally, some stats.

Between the 12th June (leaving Worcester) and the 10th January (arriving in Almería) we have:

Been on the road for 212 days - 68 in Spain
Of these 68 we have ridden on 50 - even if just to the shop/pootle
Ridden 2,180km - averaging 42km on riding days
Wild camped 19 nights and camped at campsites another 9 - in total we camped for 48% of our Spanish stay
Slept 16 nights with family in France
Had one night of no sleep when we rode through New Year’s Eve