The elusive Navarre…

It’s not really that we don’t like it, on the contrary, but Navarre seems to slip through our fingers as soon as Marvin sets its wheels there… Two days of playing cat and mouse…

We think we’re there, and then… no. But we clearly saw this big red sign that said “Navarra” (or “Nafarroa” for the locals, because we speak Basque in Navarre, sir!). We couldn’t miss it, moreover, because it’s the first autonomous community boundary sign that we’ve managed to see since we left, even though we’ve already crossed three, autonomous communities of these (and it’s not for lack of looking for them…)! And yet, when we thought we had finally arrived in Navarre, we just had time for a visit and, at a bend in the road, we were back in Aragon! It’s a bit like an episode of that old series, The Twilight Zone, where the protagonist was trapped in a village to which he always returned, no matter what he did to try to leave it…

So, since our last post, we have repaired the leak, left Catalonia, crossed Aragon, took a break at the castle of Loarre, pushed to the castle of Olite, slept under a Roman aqueduct and crossed the Natural Park of Bardenas Reales of Navarre, and yet, every time we arrive somewhere to sleep and look at the map, we are in Aragon again! The Fourth Dimension, I tell you… 😱

It must be said that at first glance, the landscapes are quite similar on one side and the other of the boundary of the two communities… Fields as far as the eye can see, for kilometers and kilometers, and from time to time, for to spice things up a bit, another field, but with wind turbines or solar panels, this time. And then not to do things by halves, when they decide to plant wind turbines here, it’s in groups of 100 or 200! It fills an entire valley, or an entire mountain, your choice, and it’s like walking through a forest of wind turbines… In the fight against climate change, no doubt Aragon and Navarre must be very well placed !…

The other attraction of the region (after Roncal cheese) is the medieval castles, all very well preserved or renovated, such as the castle of Loarre (preserved) and that of Olite, completely renovated at the beginning of the century following to the original model. Enough to wander for hours in the passageways and spiral staircases, climb the towers, stroll through the queen’s gardens or explore the armory rooms…

And to go back a little further in time, we spent last night in an astonishing place: the archaeological excavation site of Los Bañales, an ancient Roman town in the middle of the fields, in the depths of Aragon. Most of the excavations have brought to light the remains of an average Roman city from the 2nd Century BC, with, among other things, the best preserved thermal baths outside of Italy and steles bearing the names of different illustrious figures. who deserved to have their statue exposed there. The most curious place, however, is undoubtedly the aqueduct which transported water from a small reservoir to the thermal baths, and whose pillars are still standing, in the middle of the wheat fields. It’s quite surreal to pass between two pillars with Marvin and settle there for the night, thinking that these stones, on either side of the truck, have been there for more than 2,000 years… All things considered, they are a bit like Moaïs of Easter Island, guarding the wheat fields around…

And then to finish with a bit of nature, we began our descent towards the south (and ended our visit to Navarre) with the Bardenas Reales Natural Park (and Biosphere Reserve), one of the four desert or semi-desert zones in Spain (we will see two during our trip, with the Gorafe desert).

Let’s clarify things a bit to start: a desert here has little to do with large sand dunes where nothing grows… It’s actually a very (very, very…) arid area, where nothing grows except a few thorny bushes and two or three snakes, and from which strange chimneys of earth and stones emerge that erosion has forgotten when it passed through here… With 30°C at noon in mid-March, suffice to say that it isn’t really the most hospitable place on the planet… But aesthetically, it’s impressive (even without a sand dune)!…

The dirt tracks that pass here, on the other hand, are rather closer to those of the desert than to the straight and smooth highways of the rest of Navarre. So, we did our first day 95% on dirt tracks, and we were happy to see that nothing had moved in Marvin, apart from our green plant (not too green anymore), which had thrown in the towel and jumped out of its pot… And for ornithologists who know the area, no, we didn’t see any bustards, unfortunately… 😉

Before leaving Aragon and continuing south, we will sleep this evening on the Plana de la Negra (read Bardena Negra, since Aragon also has a very small part of Bardenas). Nothing to do with the desert part since we are surrounded by pines, but from here, at an altitude of around 500m, we are on the edge of a large cliff which overlooks all the “low” Bardenas (the desert part) and the large agricultural plains around. One last look to the north (and the snow-capped Pyrenees in the distance) before turning definitely towards the south!

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In Bardenas Reales, as anywhere else, LEAVE NO TRACE!

– Always travel on public ways and respect the signs.
– Limit noise and interfere as little as possible with wildlife.
– Respect the other users.
– Leave rocks, plants and other natural features as you found them and respect historic sites.
– Take your waste with you and throw it into the appropriate containers, in the nearest village.
– Do not camp inside protected areas and do not make any fires.