El Perello to Castillo

I didn’t sleep well at all last night. I went to sleep annoyed at the noisy morons who played there bongos and let there dogs bark until 11:30pm and once I was in bed I realised Wanda wasn’t level and I was sliding head first into the wall so I slept up the other end so I I slid down the bed instead which meant Ellie an I essentially topped and tailed.
At 6am I gave up trying to sleep and admittedly I did consider putting food on the roofs and around the motorhomes that were noisy last night so the birds could have a feast and wake them up crapping all over there vans, but it’s my birthday and I didn’t really want any aggro, so I made coffee instead.
At 8am we decided to get out of bed and get dressed, we had plans today and by 9am, after rush hour we were ready to leave and the noisy arseholes were still in bed. It took all my strength not to toot the horn on the way out. Beach park ups just attract a certain sort of traveller. Even if they’ve been parked in the woods for days once they all get to the beach it’s like they’re really on holiday and all sense, respect and morals go out of the window. Every beach park up we’ve been to is like this.
Our first destination and main highlight of the day was to pass through El Perello to the other side and find a hike I had marked off where the was some prehistoric cave art and some caves. The description said there was a car park and the hike was easy.
I’d marked the car park on TomTom and getting there was a real challenge. Once we passed around the town we hit gravel roads which I was kind of expecting, but what I wasn’t expecting was the roughness and the gradients. At no point in the description did it say the car park was 4x4 access only. 1/2 mile from the car park I found a flat patch of land off the gravel track where they had been cutting trees down. I managed to reverse park Wanda neatly on some flat bits just missing the tree stumps either side and then we walked the rest of the way to the car park.
To be honest, Wanda had already done over 2 miles of gravel without struggling but I just didn’t want to risk breaking her or smashing her up for no reason or there not actually being a car park at the end of the track, because that would have been a nightmare to reverse out.
We walked the rest of the way in and were glad we’d left Wanda as they were brush cutting the verges and there were huge spiny branches all over the track. Definitely puncture material.
We started the hike and straight away started climbing and within 20 minutes we had climbed 450 meters and were sweating buckets. It wasn’t particularly sunny but it was very hot, very close, and absolutely no air. Ellie was finding it worse as Covid has definitely got on her chest.
At this point we found the cave and cave art, it was amazing to think how many thousands of years old it was and how well preserved it is, but at some point in the past that whole wall must have been covered with the same picture art and the weather has taken it all.
We pushed on, climbing to 750 meters before finally starting the decent on really rough rocky terrain. It was completely wild. No steps, no ropes, we were left to fend for ourselves. You would never have a path like this in England.
At the bottom there was another cave but this one had no art although we could get into it as it was much bigger and there was an information post. All of the caves in this area were used as dwellings during the prehistoric ages.
We headed back towards the car park and with the walk done we came to the conclusion that it wasn’t actually an easy family hike atall. I certainly wouldn’t take young children as that’s an accident waiting to happen.
We made it back to Wanda still sweating, freshened up with some cold drinks and then headed for the main town of El Perello.
All of the trails in the area covering over 500 miles of hiking and biking started from the municipal swimming pool in the town centre. I knew we couldn’t sleep here but I had found a free airè a couple of miles away and if parking was easy I’d be happy to drive in and we could hike and bike from there.
Finding the municipal swimming pool and parking area was a nightmare, and TomTom was trying to take us down all sorts of streets. Eventually I found where we had to go.and fortunately there was already another motorhome parked there otherwise I’d have driven straight past. I reversed in and parked up. Then we went for a walk through town.
El Perello is a tiny town but it seems to have all manor of shops and cafés and everything was open. There is even a town hall, municipal sports area complete with a full size football pitch and a police station but compared to other towns it is tiny. It seemed strange that this place had everything to offer but no Airè for us, but other much smaller villages and even bigger towns with no shops at all do offer an Airè for motorhomers. Especially as El Perello’s whole website and tourism is about hiking and biking but there’s nowhere in town to stay, or park if you have bikes.
We went to a little Café for lunch as it was my birthday we thought we’d treat ourselves. We ordered coffees first and as soon as they came so did the olive flies. Hundreds and hundreds buzzing around us, landing on our hands, cups, eyes, ears and any other naked bit of skin. Olive flies look like a regular house flies just a fraction smaller and 10 times more annoying. That probably should have been our que to drink coffee and just leave but stupidly we ordered food as we were hungry and as soon as that came out more flies came. The food was delicious, but we woofed it down so fast because of the flies we didn’t really enjoy it. It was eat, pay the bill and leave.
Heading back to Wanda we stopped at the municipal swimming pool to see where the trails started. Every single hike and bike trail started here and I had intended to do a few but the reality of it soon dawned on me that it wasn’t all it was cracked up to be.
Sure you could go in trails, but you would have to cycle on the roads through town first. I had hoped there was a track leading out of town with various branches off to different trails and as for the hiking trails they were exactly the same. Once we’d walked through town once we weren’t going to do it every time to get to another trail. I was gutted, I’d had reall high hopes of loving this place and as much as I do love it, there’s nowhere for us to park or stay.
We headed off to the town of L’amelia Del Mar where I had found a free place to stay in a car park that was away from the morons who like to stay at the beach. Once we pulled up we realised we had the A7 motorway in front of us and 2 railway lines directly behind us and one was for freight.
It was now only 1:30pm so I said we should find somewhere else but Ellie was happy just not to have bongos or barking dogs for the night when on park4night this place in the middle of nowhere just popped up.
It was just 30 minutes away. We’ll away from the beach on a mountainside and all the reviews were 5 star. I told Ellie this is the place and admittedly she was worried because she wanted to head back to the the Delta to see Flamingos but I was sure this would be better, and 30 minutes later we had arrived.
The abandoned village of Castillo is definitely one of our more random finds and is unique in the fact that it is being restored. The town dates back originally to the 12th-13th century and was originally a tiny walled town with one huge pillar at it’s centre. Giving it the appearance of a castle and because of the 1 metre thick walls it would keep the townsfolk safe from invaders. Hence the name Castillo.
All of the ground work of the original foundations are still here, a lot of the original walls are still here and from the air you can see the original shape of the town. It has been carefully and masterfully reconstructed using original materials since 2008 and just a few of the houses have been finished and people have moved in, but the rest of the town is still in a state of decay or restoration giving it a very ghostly feel and to top it off we saw nobody. It was certainly creepy and couldn’t work out whether we are allowed to be here, should be here, is it a tourist attraction or an archeological site?
We spent about 90 minutes wandering around taking pictures and saw no one. Then we headed back to Wanda for the rest of the afternoon had some dinner and chilled out watching TV.
As the sun set a different feeling came over the village. No lights came on atall and there is no moon. It is unbelievably still. The whole place is pitch black. There isn’t a sound except for lots of owls.
This is one of the creepiest places we’ve stayed.Read more