Safe Return Doubtful

Orbaneja Del Castillo is one of those attractive ancient Spanish villages that gets floods of tourists at the weekend. Buses bring crowds from the local cities of Burgos, Santander, Bilbao and Vitoria. The interest of the majority of visitors is in taking a selfie in front of the waterfall that cascades through the middle of the village, and the turquoise pools it forms below. Local entrepreneurs sell cheeses and crafts. The six bars and restaurants get busy from early afternoon and remain so until darkness falls. 

I arrived on Friday morning and enjoyed seeing the village when it was quiet, with its rusty coloured houses clinging to the sides of the Ebro canyon. There has been a community here for more than a thousand years, but for much of that time they were concerned with looking after their cattle rather than the tourist industry. Incredibly there is a permanent population of just 47, at the last census.

Almost all of those who work with tourism live outside the valley, an hour away by car.  My interest was for the hikes up the side of the canyon, the views earned, and the mesa, or the expansive plateau that is reached after a few kilometres, just above a thousand metres. 

Several places on the mesa have the old shepherds’ huts, Los Chozos de Orbaneja; at the old community of Estilla, there are at least twenty. 

The huts haven’t been used for many years now, but are looked after by volunteers. I do like the atmosphere at places like this; quite alone with only the ghosts of history. It wouldn’t be the same if anyone else was anywhere near, and certainly not in the high season. 

Roja and I walked up and wandered around them on both Saturday and Sunday mornings, returning to the refuge of the van to watch sport to let the tourist folk get on with their business. There are several car parks, and I had chosen the one furthest from the village, which attracted less visitors. There were probably less than usual as the weather was cold, especially for Spanish people, not getting above 8C. 

On the sports front it was a quiet weekend, though it was the Rugby Europe semifinal between Portugal and Spain (the other was Georgia Romania), which I settled for on Saturday afternoon, as well as a few United Rugby Championship games. 

This morning the weather closed in and there was steady rain, with temperatures around 5C. By now the car parks were all empty, but after a short walk I drove east, heading for the Sierra de La Demanda.