Roquettes to Artana

We were up at 8am bright and early. Today was washing day and moving day.
By 9am Wanda was packed and ready to move and after helping a Dutch guy sort his water filler out it was our turn at the fill and dump station. We emptied our grey and refilled the fresh water and we were ready, then it was off to the eroski supermarket where the washers and driers were to wash our clothes and get some last minute supplies and then route plan.
We only had a few bits to wash so the small washing machine got the abuse this time and while that did it’s job I planned the next airè for the night.
We were moving area completely today. I’ll be sad to leave Catalonia and this area in particular. The people have been really friendly and the sense of freedom is amazing. Everything has been geared up to get you outside doing things, whether it’s on a bike or foot, and to top it off most of it is free. Free parking, free trails, free castles and free museums. We’re going to miss this place but the road beckons and there’s lots more to see.
Our next destination for this trip is Valencia and the caves of Saint Joseph but after checking online and booking tickets we’re going to have to wait until Wednesday to visit them which gives us a chance to get to the area and explore a bit first.
I found a few Airès on park4night that have been set up as a community organisation in really small towns. All are free and most offer water and a dump station. Including the caves of Saint Joseph. I chose one in the small mining town of Ardena that had good reviews, said it was quiet. Once the washing was finished we headed out of the car park turned right onto the one way system, done a U turn at the first roundabout and pointed in the direction of Valencia and promptly came to an abrupt stop as a protest got underway on the next roundabout. We obviously don’t know what it was about but it seemed every farmer on there tractors were protesting about something important and to prove that point they tipped dead of clippings all down the road and across the roundabouts stopping all traffic. It was a nightmare and the police just watched.
It took us 30 minutes to get going again, and as we were driving out of Roquettes a string of tractors tipping olive clippings behind them were coming on the opposite side of the road and it went in for about a mile.
Once we got onto the motorway of the AP-7 it was plain sailing. We had 70 miles to go and 60 of them flew past with no hold ups. The AP-7 runs right the way down the west coast and as we neared Valencia we could see the tourist resorts with there high rise hotels looming over the sea in the distance. We wouldn’t be going near them.
Leaving the motorway we headed into the Valencian mountains, hitting winding roads and passing ancient churches and the remains of castles as we neared our park up in the small mining town of Armena.
We drove right through Armena on the main drag and as we came out the other side our stop was down a little hill on the right and as we pulled in we could see it was going to be nice.
We would staying at the Ermita de Santa Christa, or the hermitage of Saint Christa. It’s an ancient church with a font or water source flowing from it and our parking spot is set in amongst the olive groves. It’s beautifully kept and really quiet with a free flowing river next to us. There were already 2 motorhomes here and another one pulled up just after us and now with the 4 of us here it seems full. But we all have our own private space.
It was now around 2:30pn and after a light lunch we checked out the church which is locked but we could still see inside. Then we checked out the river and headed back to Wanda deciding on what our plan of attack was going to be for tomorrow.
I checked google maps and there were a few possibilities, including the castle in Armena, some mines which are open to explore and various hikes.
Ellie didn’t fancy the castle so I said I’d ride to it and check it out so I unloaded the bike, got changed and headed out.
From the Airè there is a track running all the way through the olive groves that leads to town about a mile away so I took that and was at the town within 10 minutes. I ride through the cobbled streets that were ultra tight even in my bike. We would never be able to get Wanda down these, it felt claustrophobic on my bike. I kept cycling all the time ascending until I came to a lonely track on it’s own at the far end of town that led up to the castle and it looked like a wall of concrete. It was 3/4 mile long and a 13% gradient all the way. Why did they have to build castles up high?
I was up for the challenge, dropped to my last gear and went for it. It was an ultra killer climb and half way up I felt like I was having an asthma attack and it was that point I realised that covid had probably affected my chest after all. My legs felt fine, my mind was straight, my gearing was good. I just couldn’t breathe and by the time I reached the top I was gasping.
I took my breath and a couple of photos before making the scary decent down. 13% in a straight line for 3/4 mile is super scary especially with a 180° 20 meter hair pin bend at the bottom and a brick wall.
From the castle I rode further out, leaving the town and the roads and heading onto gravel tracks through the woods to one of the old mines.
It was a couple of miles and I found the trail to the mine saying it was another 500 meters and as the sun was beginning to set I started to head back taking a different path. I hadn’t realised how far up I had come and going back a different way I did some crazy descending and crazy speeds over really rough and rocky terrain before finally emerging from the woods back onto tarmac. Then it was just a couple of miles back through the olive groves to Wanda where Ellie had made a dinner of chicken wraps.
After dinner we sat and watched the darkness take the mountain view before closing the blinds and settling in for the night.Read more