Bardenas Reales Natural Park

Hi, everyone!

Today I am going to talk to you about a place that I visited very recently and that is very different to the rest of the places that I have talked to you about up until now.

It is a very special place, a unique, semi-desert natural landscape which is in the Iberian Peninsula, situated in the south of Navarra, close to Tuleda. This clay and sandstone landscape spans 42,500 hectares in total. The truth is that it is quite an inhospitable location due to the fact that there is hardly any vegetation, but it hides some very strange shapes which have been formed over centuries due to water and wind-based erosion. I felt like I was in Arizona more than I was in Spain.

For all of this plus a lot of other reasons, they declared it a Natural Park in 1999 and it is also a Biosphere reserve.

We went from from Bilbao by car, and the journey took us around one and a half hours. Right at the park entrance, we came across a visitor centre cabin where they had lots of cars parked, as well as a viewpoint. We decided to keep on with our route and stop there on the way back.

On the way we came across quite a lot of people doing the route by bike, in fact there were lots of sign-posted routes which you could do by car, foot or by bike. In our case, we went by car along the dirt and gravel roads, on which it was forbidden to go faster than 40 km per hour, but to be honest it is quite difficult to go any faster than that due to the state of the road.

The entrance to the park is completely free and you can access it from 8 am till an hour before sunset. Saying that, if you go by car it will cost you quite a lot in petrol since, at least in our case, it took us around two or three hours to go around the whole park.

I remember that when we went, which was only around a month or two ago, it had rained the whole week and we were scared that it would be caked with mud. Luckily, the day that we went, the sun was gleaming and it was quite warm, so we couldn't have been more lucky. Saying that, be careful about visiting this place in the middle of summer, since due to its very unique climate the temperatures can be particularly high and this can make your visit a bit more difficult.

We decided to go towards the right first, although on the left was the route that went towards Castildetierra, which is the most famous place in this park. During the ar journey we were slowly enjoying the landscape, the hills and cliffs... And some small abandoned houses which were there caught our attention, right in the middle of nothing.

Once we got closer to the Bardenas Reales, we decided to stop to investigate and have a picnic. We came across quite a few families who were also going along here with their caravans, most of whom were French, probably due to how close this place is to the French border.

Even though there are lots of corners in which you can lose yourself in this park, the most famous and most visited is Castildetierra without a doubt, which is also known as the Fairy's Chimney. And it is because this small hill is in the shape of a chimney and this has turned into the most iconic image of the Bardenas Reales. This place can be found in the North-East area of the route, in the part of the park known as the Blanca Baja.

This formation which I am talking about is due to an erosion process which took place over thousands of years here. And this is because millions of years ago this place was covered by water, but later there was an opening towards the Mediterranean so it disappeared and now there are rocks of all different shapes and sizes. Shapes such as Castildetierra's one are formed because the materials which are found in the higher parts are more resistant to erosion to those at the lower part, which would have assisted their formation.

It is strange because also, just to the side of this small hill, you can find the well known Barranco Grande where a stream runs when it rains.

As you can see, this place is entirely unique. Personally, I have been to many places in Spain and all of them are very different, but none of them have these characteristics.

But I am not the only person that has been wowed by this place, and that is because this place has been a source of inspiration for all kinds of artists. In fact, it has been the setting for many television adverts and films, such as Pride and Prejudice and Accion Mutante.

But if it is known for something, it is for being where they filmed the series Game of Thrones. The Bardenas Realas take us towards the Dothraki Sea setting in its most extreme form when Daenerys Targaryen is kidnapped by the Dothraki clan from Khal Moro. They were scenes which needed more than 1,500 people and more than 70 horses. That's easily said, right?

This has been everything about this incredible Natural Park, the Bardenas Reales. I hope that once again you have enjoyed reading!

And as always, thanks for reading.

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