The Baztan valley is a stunning region in northern Spain with rolling hills, lush pastures, livestock and quaint villages. It’s an area we’ve driven through before but we didn’t stop to explore so this time I planned some hikes. We’re in the midst of a cold snap, it’s unseasonably cold for April but the good…
Tag: nature
Hiking in the Spanish Pyrenees
The Pyrenees form a natural border between Spain and France and they remain snow covered until mid June. We weren’t sure if it would be a pointless detour in early April if the routes were inaccessible or roads dangerous, but we decided to give it a go. The first hike we did was up to…
Blue rivers, boat trips and mountain shrines | Aragon, Spain
The village of Ainsa is known as being the gateway to the Pyrenees and it was quickly added to my list of places I wanted to explore. The Rio Cinca has been dammed south of Ainsa which has created a series of beautiful lakes which is where we were heading. As we drove through the…
Peach blossoms and wild canyon hikes | Catalunya, Spain
In early spring Spain’s peach trees burst with colour and a sea of pink blossoms fill the verdant valleys. We were lucky to accidentally time our trip to see them in Murcia region and now we have another chance in Catalonia. We headed to the village of Aitona as I’d seen photos online of endless…
Waterfalls and warm rivers | Valencia Region, Spain
As we drove down a steep, winding road towards the little village of Chulilla we were surprised to see so many campervans and motorhomes parked up. We soon realised why when we saw sheer rock walls surrounding the town – it was a climbing mecca. Most of these vans belonged to climbers who spend their…
Wild swimming and abandoned towns in Southern Spain
Craig and I love wild swimming, especially in fresh water. We’ve enjoyed our sea swims in the Atlantic and Mediterranean so far but I hate having to pre-think having a shower afterwards to rinse the salt water off. Fresh water is so much easier, we can jump into any river and get changed straight back…
Milky blue lakes, idyllic springs and peach blossoms | Spain
I really love the reservoirs in Spain, the ground must be mostly clay because it mixes with the water like a milky tea and creates the most incredible opaque blue colour. So today we were heading to yet another one, but this time we couldn’t park close to the water and we had a 13km…
Abandoned mines and nudist beaches | Murcia, Spain
A 50km drive through the countryside led us to the coastal village of Bolnuevo where there were some interesting rock formations behind the beach. That was the main reason we came here and to be honest they weren’t that special as there was a big carpark between the beach and the rocks and they were…
Storm clouds, hippy villages and rainbows in Cabo de Gato | Spain
The Cabo de Gato natural park is an area of rugged coastline with cliffs, hidden coves and rock formations formed from volcanic activity. It’s the only place in mainland Europe with a true hot-desert climate although it was a little on the fresh side during our visit. We entered the park from the south and…
Cave dwellings and the Spanish desert
A lot of people don’t realise that southern Spain has some huge mountains and ski resorts. You can spend the morning sunbathing at the beach, drive an hour and then go snowboarding in the mountains. We would normally aim for these places to go hiking but the roads into the Sierra Nevada mountains all looked…
NON STOP TRAVELLING 