On the Trail of Don Quixote’

I left Camping Rio Mundo on the Wednesday morning, with a slightly heavy heart…it’s been a lovely quiet site, the weather has (apart from a few thunderstorms!) been really warm and nice…but I can’t stay in one place forever, so I paid up, and headed off…

Firstly into Riopar itself, and finally got the tourist office open, and got some info… and then off to Riopar Viejo,( Old Riopar) another hilltop castle and village, really pleasant and quiet… and I can’t find my pictures for it ! Later in the day, I went back out to the Puente de Christos, and had lunch in the shade of the trees, before venturing down into the valley of Los Churros – the source of the Rio Mundo… high up on the sheer limestone cliffs, the sunken water bursts through the cliff walls and splutters down the face in a growing torrent of water…and waterfalls , and as the evening wore on, I found myself almost alone in the nice big,flat car park 3 kms away from the nearest road…. so , what to do ? – stay of course, so I did, another couple of blokes pitched their tent at the other end of the car park, and we all settled down, under the stars, listening to the pleasant noises of the forest, and having a good kip…..

until 6-45 a.m. when I was awakened by the ‘Guardia Civil’, who, very pleasantly told me I shouldn’t be parked their overnight, and I had to move by nightfall- no problem I told them in my best ‘Spanish/English’ I was going anyway… this is what happens when you sleep in the National Parks, ah well, at least I’d had a full nights sleep, and so set off again on my travels…

I started heading north, firstly stopping at a small village Villanueva de la Fuente, by which time I was already picking up the signs for the ‘Trail of Don Quixote’’… amazing the huge churches that these little villages have… then on to Villanueva de los Infantes, an amazing ‘village’, with it’s famed connections to Don Quixote, and virtually undisturbed old buildings and churches… I called in at the very helpful tourist office here, but by the time I’d got back to Wally, I’d seen most of the town, and so continued on my travels, up towards, and eventually past Madrid, skirting around it, not wanting to stop there….but it was a hot, tiring afternoon of travel, to get up and past the busy Madrid area….

As my wanderings continued, late afternoon I ended up in a village called Ayllon…another well preserved, castellated place – if I could have found somewhere to stay I would have stopped, but couldn’t find anywhere decent, and so continued… and saw some signs for an Archaeological site – Tiermes… I wonder what that is, I thought, only one way to find out…so I drove, quite a bit out of my way, ending up at Tiermes, an ancient Roman settlement, with an aqueduct and bath house, and lots of differing fortifications…  an interesting couple of hours spent tramping around it… before heading off again, for my intended destination… an area called the Rio Lobos Canyon…where I expected to find a wild site to stay at… couldn’t , but as darkness fell I found an Aire at San Leonardo de Yague, which I happily stopped at, and quickly fell to sleep… ready for another days exploring..