Day 19 – to a track above El Collado (close to the ruin of Castillo del Poyo)

A morning view of Castielfabib, shortly after leaving El Cuervo..

Just for ten kilometres on a two way road, then off onto the windy ones again, and through the village of Riodeva. And only just through.. I was just slim enough (..the van..) to fit through the narrow streets.

Then, at the high point of the road to Camarena de la Sierra, a hike off up to Ermita San Pablo.

At 1794 metres is the peak of San Pablo, marked by the ugly concrete block. Just 50 metres away is an 18th century chapel / church.

There was a paragraph on religion in Spain in my most recent book, Tremlett’s Ghosts Of Spain..

The proportion of Spaniards who define themselves as religious is, according to a poll, no different to the proportion of German or Dutch who do so. It is significantly smaller than their southern Catholic neighbours in Portugal or Italy. Only the British and French consider themselves less religious. The Franco period now looks like a last-gasp attempt at hanging on to already waning church powers.

(He includes a reference to the poll in the appendix.)

From there we went up to the top of Javalambre and it’s ski resort for lunch. Another mountain side eroded by the sport I’m afraid (you can tell I’m not a skier).

I had intended to stay in Manzanera, but any park up was full of litter and correspondingly, flies. It even had a campsite, but that was even worse.

A few kilometres on and I saw a rough track up to Castillo de Poyo, the ruin on top of the table of the mountain in the photo below. A kilometre or so up, and at 1250 metres we found the perfect place.

It had a great view, looking down at El Collardo village, and a windfarm beyond on the hill. After dark the wind towers were lit up, and for those who like that sort of thing, provided a light show. To me, ever the miserable, it is just light pollution, and something that ruins the night sky..