Dave found a nice walk on Alltrails about a half an hour drive away. Camino natural del Guadalaviar. We packed up the van, grabbed a quick breakfast in the campsite café and headed off to the start point. We were quite surprised amongst all this countryside to suddenly see an airport. We discovered that this was Teruel airport and does not have any passengers but is used as a storage and maintenance facility. Shortly after that we came to a massive industrial estate about 4 miles outside Teruel. We then drove to the little town San Blas to the start of our walk.
The whole walk was nicely maintained and very well signposted. The only part that was not well signposted was the very starting point of the walk, where you had to take a fairly sharp downhill right turn just before the bridge. There was a small parking area but if you went along a little bit further, there were two more parking areas, one of which was an overnight space for camper vans in a very beautiful spot.
The walk went along a river gorge through a forested area. There were quite a few stretches with boardwalks and quite a few bridges to cross. When it came to some steeper parts of the gorge there were metal walkways attached to the rock. You got spectacular views from here and it all felt very safe and secure.
We noticed an information board for the Via ferrata Tres Puntos. A Via Ferrata is a climbing route equipped with metal rungs, cables, and ladders that allows people of all levels to experience the thrill of climbing on a mountain face with a safety system. It’s a fixed route that makes it possible to explore otherwise inaccessible mountainous terrain. We could see the various wires and metal loops as we went by.
We could hear loads of bird song but the birds were well hidden in the trees. There were lots of butterflies – I saw yellow, blue, white and multicoloured ones. I also spotted a lizard, but we did not see any birds of prey which are common in the area. There were some pretty flowers along the route, including lots of wild poppies which popped in the sunshine.
As the walk progressed we got nearer to the large dam by the reservoir. We needed to go up lots of steps in order to reach the top of the dam but it was great to contrast the views on either side. A few cyclists went by crossing the top of the dam. There were pedaloes and canoes for hire by the reservoir and you could imagine that it would be really busy in high season. It was an added bonus that we spotted a café by the big car park. We stopped there for a very welcome cold beer (alcohol free! Dave still behaving!) There were a couple of young girls swimming in the reservoir while their boyfriends tried to help some guy jumpstart his car!! They failed!!
On the way back, we had the option of a longer route. To my delight, (and probably his too!) Dave missed the turning! It was pretty hot by then and we had definitely had a decent workout. Overall, the walk was about 5 miles long. We had done the equivalent of 57 floors of stairs though, so it felt like we had earned our lunch. After that, we went back to base, ate in the campsite café and just chilled for the rest of the day.
