Spain Day 7 - Bardenas Reales - Belchite

 


We started the day with a walk round the cave houses behind the van. It’s a bit of a scramble to get up there but, when once there, you can walk around the houses freely. It’s shocking to think they were still inhabited in the 1960s, though it was easy to imagine how they could work as somewhere to live in a hot climate as they were cool and spacious with clearly defined rooms. However, the idea that your livestock would live in one of them is less appealing!



We take a different route back down and pass a factory which seemed to be processing veg, with waste flying down a shoot into a heap and we couldn’t resist helping ourselves to some broccoli waste! Looked to good to be binned and will come in handy for dinner 😂


We are a bit later leaving than anticipated so we decided to head straight to Belchite today and retrace our steps going to Zaragoza tomorrow. We mostly use motorways but the final road over was spectacular… looking like a minor road on a map it was dead straight and was perfect for a US road movie…. Big wide open views and the landscape has changed again. Sun out too which helps. Saw increasingly large numbers of birds inc more vultures, kites and at one point three storks flew overhead.

Belchite is town that suffered hugely in he civil war and is unusual in the the ruined town was not rebuilt but another ‘town’ was built alongside it. The aire in Belchite is on the edge of the new town and free unless you want hook-up. All very clean and well marked out with ten parking bays. We are the first in, but two more join us later in the day. Two mins from supermarkets and bars and ten mins or so from the gate to the old town. The remains of the old town can only be visited on a guided tour booked via the tourism office (8€). Though guided in super fast Spanish we were given an audio guide with stripped down information in English and a biker on the tour, who was originally from the uk, helped us out from time to time. All fascinating stuff and visually dramatic in the late afternoon light. The tour guide was the daughter of some of the survivors of the civil war battle held here and some of the stories she told were quite harrowing. There has been damage caused by looting and the weather has taken its toll but it’s apparent there was significant damage due to the fighting. The tour took two hours and whilst we didn’t pick up all that was said, just wandering nearby whilst she spoke it was easy to see how much the town had suffered. 






Back in the new town we picked up some groceries and had a wander before eating in the van. A late night walk did highlight many bars … far more than no you’d expect for a town this size but most were brightly lit and crowded with local men celebrating the end of the week so we settled in the van instead for an evening of more Belchite research and to make a plan for Zaragoza tomorrow.


Miles so far: 370

Steps today: 11,200

Overnight: Autocaravannas Belchite - free

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