High up in the mountains of Aracena

Sonny, the motorhome is enjoying life back on the road, after 6 days parked up in Punta Umbría whilst we visited Adam and Melissa again.

We have headed north 120kms into the Sierra de Aracena Natural Park.  There aren’t any Aires in Aracena so we are parked in a car park at the edge of the town (N37.88906 W6.56984) and have been joined by some Dutch, Germans, Spanish, French and Portuguese motorhomes over the last 3 days.  It is nice and quiet apart from Saturday morning, when the market traders set up their stalls nearby from 8am onwards!

View of the castle from Sonny's front door!

The mountain road took us passed Rio Tinto, the third richest mining company in the world producing mainly copper, iron ore, silver and coal.  It’s like a giant crater, a few kilometres wide and one giant blot on the landscape.

The giant opencast mines of Rio Tinto

The town is dominated by a hilltop ruined castle, built in the 13^th century on the base of a Moorish fortress and a church that was converted from a mosque. 

The bull ring

On the edge of the town is an old washing area. There used to be an old water spring here, which came from the lakes of the Maravillas Caves and was converted to a washhouse in 1926.

The square next to it has ceramic painted tiles depicting different areas of the caves and a couple of sculptures dedicated to the washing ladies.

Plaza San Pedro

Aracena is famous for its spectacular limestone caves – the Gruta de Las Maravillas (the Cave of Marvels).  Opened in 1914, it's a 1km circular tour of the underground streams and caverns - well worth a visit!

The Museo del Jamon (Ham museum), where you can learn about the life of the Iberia pigs and the production of the Iberian Ham.

Narrow, steep cobbled street of Aracena

This is our third visit to Aracena, and we have done all the tourist visits - the castle, caves and ham museum.  This time the visit was all about the walking!

Setting off on our walk we got caught up in the Huelva Extreme cycling race.  The cyclists (about 1500) travel a distance of nearly 200kms, starting at Higuera de la sierra, (neighbouring village to Aracena), they cycle cross country through all the little villages and finish on the coast at Mazagón (near Huelva).

Watching the last of the cyclists go by.

The circular walk took us west of Aracena down country lanes, cobbled donkey trails, through olive groves and cork oaks and encounters with Iberian pigs to the pretty medieval-looking village of Linares de la Sierra.  The town only has a population of 300 inhabitants and even though it was a Saturday it was very quiet.

A unique feature of the village are the mosaic areas in front of many of the old village houses, made out of light and dark cobbled stones. 

Mosaic 'carpet' outside the houses in Linares

Plaza de Tores - sitting in the grandstand of the old bullring, which is now the main village square

Enjoying a cold beer in the Plaza de Toros. - thirsty work all this walking!

Pretty little butterfly that stayed still just long enough for me to 'snap' it!

Little black pig sniffing out those acorns

Our second walk the next day took us east of Aracena, to the little village of Corteconcepción.  Walking through the olive groves we spotted a goat high up in the branches.  The last time we saw this was in Morocco, where they climb the branches of Argan Trees to eat the fruits.

You can just make out the goat at the top of the olive tree, whilst one appears to be keeping guard below!

Cork Oaks

Prized Iberian pigs grubbing for acorns

Mirador Los Portales at Corteconcepción, overlooking the Aracena reservoir

Communal washing area, a typical feature in all these little villages

There isn't a lot to see in this little village, so after a quick walk around and a drink in the plaza it was time to head back to Aracena where we caught some pigs having a siesta!

Even the pigs have a siesta in Spain!

We move on tomorrow, further into the national park.

Sally x