Onda Castile & Artana Mercury Mines

This morning we were awake at 7:30am thanks to heavy traffic starting to pass, probably on there way to work. We had breakfast and a couple of coffees and then couldn’t do much until after 10am.
We had plans to visit the castle today and it didn’t open until 10:30am so at 10:10am we packed our bags and took the 1 1/2 mile trek through the busy streets of Onda and up through the historic old town to the castle.
The castle dates back to the 10th century but over the years it has been home to the moors/Muslims, romans and the Christians. In it’s original condition back in the 10th- 11th century it was called the castle of 300 towers as there was once a tower for every day of the year although this is not the case now. But there are still lots of towers.
We approached the castle up a steep slope and saw the remains of last nights fireworks scattered all over the access ramp, then we walked over the old drawbridge and through the gates into the castle. We were greeted by a Spanish lady working there asking us our nationality. She was very smiley and told us our visit was free. It still amazes us that these castles have been restored, artefacts are on display, walkways and lighting and information boards have been erected and it costs nothing for people to visit.
Inside, the grounds of the castle are massive and some parts have faired much better over the years than others. The newest parts being that of the church and school building erected by the monks who lived in the castle in the 1920’s. This is now the castle museum.
The oldest parts are really just foundations now but you could clearly see the layout of rooms and the old steps and archways were still present. It must have been an ominous sight in it’s glory days high up on the hilltop.
After our visit to the castle we went back through the old town looking at the old buildings and visiting the ancient town square before heading back to Wanda. Then it was shopping time at Lidl, and this Lidl was huge and well stocked so we managed to do a whole shop and refill the cupboards.
From Onda I decided we would head back to Artana because atleast we would be able to sleep and it was closer to the caves where we would be heading tomorrow so we pointed Wanda in that direction and drove the 13 miles back to our little park up in the olive groves at the hermitage of Santa Christa.
We had lunch and then I suggested going for a walk as it was only 2 o clock in the afternoon so we once again packed our bags with drinks and headed off through the olive and orange trees down the olive track scrumping orange’s as we went. They were the sweetest oranges ever.
At the bottom of the olive track about 2 miles from Wanda we took a left and followed the gravel track up into the mountains to the old mercury mines. It was a steep trek to get to the footpath that led to the mines but finally on our third attempt of getting here we had made it. No hunters this time.
We headed up the trail for the Mines and the gradient got steeper and steeper, then we came to the old houses that I had visited the other day on my bike.
We carried on climbing higher and higher and now we were well above the canopy of the tree line and we could see for miles. The path was loose gravel and boulders and is the same path the miners used back in the 1700’s it was treacherous with a sheer drop of the side into the forest below on one side.
After almost a kilometre of climbing we eventually came to a sign that said galleries with 2 arrows. One further up and one to the side. I chose the one that went up and after another 150 meters of climbing we came to the mines.
We both expected a couple of holes in the walls with a grate to stop us going any further but these mines were actually open. There were no safety barriers, nothing to stop us entering, no hand rails, no lights.
We could hardly believe our luck that we had found a real place to explore and as we entered the first mine it just went miles back with passages leading off in all directions.
We only had our phones for light but I did have my proper camera and set it for 4 second exposures. The place was vast.
The second mine we went in was even larger and at the entrance there was a ventilation shaft with a rope across it that said danger, Ventilation. We looked down but couldn’t see the bottom. We were 500 meters up so the shaft could be hundreds of meters deep and after throwing a few stones down it, it sounded hundreds of meters deep.
We followed a path around the shaft and down a tunnel and it opened up into a huge cavern with more tunnels leading from it. As I set the camera up and shone my phone down the cavern we could hear the bats. They sounded like they were whispering to each other.
Finding the mines and being able to explore them on our own and in our own time was a real wow factor. That’s what makes these trips so special, and today was a really special day. There’s not too many people that have explored a real mine from the 1700’s on there own, and I don’t know that many people that could have made the journey just to get to them.
We made the even more treacherous journey back down the path taking it slow because one trip or slip could have been fatal and once we had reached the end of the track back onto gravel we headed back for Wanda, it was a 13km trek scrumping more oranges on our way and by the time we got back the sun was setting and we were ready for dinner and settling in for the night. Our planned, not so busy day had been packed with adventure.Meer informatie