Spain Day 6 - Pamplona to Bardenas Reales

 Today is the first morning of waking without the fear of leaving the duvet because of the cold. Whist not exactly cosy, having decided to keep the pop-top down all night we’ve built up some warmth at least.

It’s a swift turn around and off to our next stop, the ‘biosphere’ of Bardenas Reales. It’s around an hour and a half south taking the ‘non-tolls’ route. For these distances avoiding motorways is not a trial, and gives us a better feel of where we are. Most of the time the older roads seem to run almost in parallel, have less traffic and amazing views…this is no exception. The countryside is vast and as we approach our destination the wind rises and more and more wind turbines fill the view, alongside fields filled with solar panels. The spaces are getting bigger! 




The visitor centre looks closed, but isn’t! Inside there is minimal information but someone at a desk gives us a map explaining the 30km loop that is driveable around the amazing landscape. It’s hard to explain what we are seeing as we drive around it’s unique terrain, it has been used as film locations and even today we saw a team from a fashion magazine doing a shoot, airstream dressing rooms and all. The landscape screams ‘other world’ and is unlike any vision I would have of Spain. More bucket list level stuff….

Towards the end of the loop we reach the iconic ‘Castil de Terra’ formation where there was so the opportunity to scramble down into the Cortina gorge and walk along the dry riverbed for a bit… definitely felt like the scene on the lion king where Mufasa dies so I kept my eyes open for wildebeest.There are none about, but did see footprints that may have been wild boar!


We overnight at the aire in the nearby village of Arguedas. It is beneath a cliff filled with deserted cave houses and adjacent to the cemetery. Its certainly unusual, and at night when the caves are lit with multi-coloured lights it feels like somewhere quite special. A late night walk around the town to compensate for what has tmostly been a van day. We had an idea we might get a drink somewhere but the town feels deserted with shutters blocking out any lights and no one on the streets. In someways this is lucky as they would have seen me faceplant on the uneven pavement, giving G a shock when I disappeared from view.





Total mileage: 278

Steps today: 8,600 

Overnight: Autocaravannas de Arguedas, free  

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