About 100 miles southwest of Cabra we arrive in the town of Olvera and Campsite Pueblo Blanco where the pitches are terraced into a steep hillside giving spectacular views to the mountains beyond and the town set into the nearby hillside, the castle and huge church perched at the top dominating the area. We are here for our fifth Via Verde - Via Verde de la Sierra. The trail is 32km long and has 30 tunnels, the longest almost 1km long and descends gently from the edge of Olvera to Puerto Serrano, but here's the strangest thing the railway line was not completed so trains never ran along the line. It was commissioned at the turn of the twentieth century but work came to a halt during the Spanish civil war and was finally and definitely abandoned in the sixties, all the stations, viaducts and tunnels had been built but no tracks had ever been laid. Fortunately it was later to become a trail for cyclists and walkers passing through some outstanding scenery and was awarded the First prize in 2005 - the best Via Verde (or Greenway) in Europe.
The helpful site receptionist provided us with a map to locate the start of the trail at the old station building in Olvera and on Wednesday morning we set out in the sunshine to cycle half way along. The surface started as tarmac but after a couple of miles became compacted gravel, but not too bad for cycling. The surrounding mountainous scenery was wonderful with ever changing views. The frequent tunnels adding to the interest, the longer tunnels had automatic lighting so we didn't really need our cycle lights at any time.
After a long viaduct the Rock of Zaframagon comes into view - home to one of the largest colonies of griffon vultures in Europe (about 200 breeding pairs) The nearby information centre offers the opportunity to see the nesting and perching sites of the vultures using powerful zoom cameras, the images shown on large screens. Unfortunately the centre was closed on this particular day! But we were able to see the vultures soaring above on the thermals
Eventually we reach the old station building of Coripe and our turnaround point. We stopped and had our lunch and decided at this point that one way or another we were going to cycle the other half of the trail. We just had to work out how to get us and our bikes to the other end to do it!
The route back was steady uphill until we got back to town then we had to get up the steepest hill to return to our site, I pushed my bike up it was so steep! By the time we got back to the van we had
cycled 33 miles so we decided to have a day off the next day - we only cycled 6 miles to get to the
town and back for coffee and a cake, the afternoon was spent 'chilling',enjoying the sunshine and the
lovely views from our pitch.
cycled 33 miles so we decided to have a day off the next day - we only cycled 6 miles to get to the
town and back for coffee and a cake, the afternoon was spent 'chilling',enjoying the sunshine and the
lovely views from our pitch.
Friday morning and we packed up and headed out to the end of the Via Verde at Puerto Serrano, finding the start of the trail easily on the outskirts of the town with good car parking to leave the van. We cycled through the countryside through all the tunnels, alongside the narrow ravine of the river Guadalporcun, through meadows and past livestock farms of cattle and goats. Eventually we find ourselves back at Coripe - our first completed Via Verde! Surprisingly the station cafe/restaurant is open so we celebrate with a cafe Americano.
We take a steady cycle back to the van taking in the breathtaking scenery and the 30' heat. This may not suit everyone but to us it is definitely Cycling Heaven!!
Our mission to cycle as many Vias Verde as we can has taken us well off the beaten track to wonderful places we would never have visited, it's been quite an adventure and great fun!
We arrived back at the converted Station, it's almost deserted so we decide to 'wild camp' for the night, perhaps haunted by the families of the railway workers who lived for a few years in the station buildings as if waiting for a train that was never to arrive.
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The route back was steady uphill until we got back to town then we had to get up the steepest hill to
return to our site, I pushed my bike up it was so steep! By the time we got back to the van we had cycled 33 miles so we decided to have a day off the next day - we only cycled 6 miles to get to the town and back for coffee and a cake, the afternoon was spent 'chilling',enjoying the sunshine and the lovely views from our pitch.
return to our site, I pushed my bike up it was so steep! By the time we got back to the van we had cycled 33 miles so we decided to have a day off the next day - we only cycled 6 miles to get to the town and back for coffee and a cake, the afternoon was spent 'chilling',enjoying the sunshine and the lovely views from our pitch.
Friday morning and we packed up and headed out to the end of the Via Verde at Puerto Serrano, finding the start of the trail easily on the outskirts of the town with good car parking to leave the van. We cycled through the countryside through all the tunnels, alongside the narrow ravine of the river Guadalporcun, through meadows and past livestock farms of cattle and goats. Eventually we find ourselves back at Coripe - our first completed Via Verde! Surprisingly the station cafe/restaurant is open so we celebrate with a cafe Americano.
We take a steady cycle back to the van taking in the breathtaking scenery and the 30' heat. This may not suit everyone but to us it is definitely Cycling Heaven!!
Our mission to cycle as many Vias Verde as we can has taken us well off the beaten track to wonderful places we would never have visited, it's been quite an adventure and great fun!
We arrived back at the converted Station, it's almost deserted so we decide to 'wild camp' for the night, perhaps haunted by the families of the railway workers who lived for a few years in the station buildings as if waiting for a train that was never to arrive.
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