Walk in Arribes del Duero National Park

Following a good nights sleep and a hearty Spanish breakfast we headed into Fermoselle to get our first look at the town and pick up supplies for our picnic lunch. We invaded the local supermarket picking up bread, cheese, Jamon, fruit, nuts and lettuce. We then walked through this beautiful medieval town and out the other side to enter the National Park.

Today our walk was approximately 11 kilometres. The weather was quite humid and rain keept threatening, but we didn’t actually get much during the walk. We passed by a number of farms and small vineyards in various states of disrepair. Gabriele tells us that some of the properties are empty, as people often need to move away from their hometown to find employment. She said that people remain attached to their place of birth and so they plan to return once retired. So, an issue in Spain is that many of these smaller villages have an aging demographic which doesn’t help the town grow and thrive. There are many properties for sale but if you were to move to a village such as Fermoselle you would need to have your own business or income stream as there are few employment opportunities.

I digress, back to the hike. It was a pleasant morning and we got to see the Duero River and the gorge. We stoped at a Visigoth church for our picnic lunch before heading back to town.Read more