The Ayoluengo oil field (campo petrolífero de Ayoluengo) is a small petroleum deposit in Burgos. It was discovered in 1963, and for a time many believed the area would become the Spanish Texas, though yields have been small with 17 million barrels produced since its opening in 1963. Some 80 barrels are currently produced on a good day with some 80-100 million barrels left, of difficult access.

Photo from here

Not the most picturesque of sites perhaps, but when you drive past, you have to remind yourself you’re in Spain. A number of the old pumps (known locally as `caballitos´- little horses ) stand to one side, a  cemetery of dinosaurs.

Ayoluengo geoolgy map from Ayoluengo page

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Links

Photo by Lumiago on Flickr

• Campo petrolifero terrestre (Ayoluengo-Burgos) Excellent article

El caso es que los pozos nunca han llegado a estar en manos de los trabajadores, pero todos aspiran a jubilarse allí. Uno de ellos es José Luis, mecánico instrumentista que lleva en el yacimiento desde 1967. Otro es Francisco, un soldador que empezó haciendo chapucillas eventuales y ahora hace de todo. Todos son currantes polivalentes. Gente sencilla y sacrificada. Ante la incertidumbre del futuro, el Ayuntamiento de Sargentes de la Lora ha proyectado la creación de un museo del petróleo para atraer turistas. Pero la escasez de infraestructuras es un lastre. Resulta paradójico que la única gasolinera en una zona productora de crudo también haya sido desmantelada no hace mucho tiempo. Hay que desviarse bastantes kilómetros para llenar el depósito del coche. Resisten un pequeño bar, una casa rural y poco más. Mucho silencio y soledad. No hay mal que por bien no venga, y los aficionados a la astronomía se dan cita en unos parajes donde no hay rastro de contaminación lumínica.
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Pero la vida sigue en el páramo de la Lora. Los agricultores cultivan una patata de siembra sensacional, aunque la Unión Europea se haya empeñado en orientar la producción hacia el girasol y el cereal, para que no compita con las patatas de otros países socios. Caprichos de la política agraria comunitaria. La naturaleza es espléndida: trigales verdes, genistas amarillas, gamones blancos. Orquídeas y avellanos silvestres. Todo tipo de setas. Roquedales calcáreos de piedra descarnada se asoman al Ebro desde las alturas. Los cañones del valle del río Rudrón producen vértigo. Es tierra de perdices, corzos y jabalíes. Y uno de los últimos feudos en la península Ibérica del lobo.

• Ayoluengo page
• UN DINOSAURIO EN LA LORA

• Lots more on the route in Spanish here

Rioseco Abbey (Monasterio cisterciense de Santa María de Rioseco) is a former Cistercian abbey in Rioseco, Burgos. The monastery was dispossessed in the 1820s, during the first Spanish Civil War. Most of the community’s goods were sold, but the monastery itself however found no buyer, and was left abandoned. In the 1850s the surviving buildings were stripped and reduced to ruins. There is now a campaign to save what is left of the the abbey and convert the site into a Romantic (with a capital R) botanical garden. Sounds a lovely idea to me.
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• Wikipedia “The monastery is in the Herreriano style. An impressive spiral staircase is still preserved, the stone walls of the church still stand, and the bóvedas retain some traces of polychromy.”
• Campaign to save Rioseco Abbey
• ¿Qué harías tú con un monasterio abandonado? (Above photo by Elías Rubio)

Links

• Hoces del río Piedra (above photo)
• Las Hoces de Rio Piedra

On Mt Gorbea in the Basque Country is a monument to a young shepherdess who was allegedly devoured by wolves in 1308. She became lost in the fog. The next day the only all her family could find were some strands of her hair. The only photo I could find is from this nice cycle blog blog.

It reads:

“Una joven del caserío Arane subió una vez a Gorbeia a retirar las ovejas de su rebaño, que pacían en aquella montaña. Pero, envuelta de improviso por espesa niebla, se desorientó de tal suerte, que no pudo hallar el camino de su casa. Allí se le hizo de noche y acechada por unos lobos murio devorada. Su familia la buscó en vano por muchos días. Solo hallaron sus cabellos en el collado de Aranekoarri.” 24 de Diciembre de 1308

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Gorbea is a mountain and massif, and is the highest in Biscay and Alava (Basque Country, Spain), with a height of 1,481 .

George Orwell spent the freezing winter of 1937 on the Alcubierre front in Aragon. The Sierra de Alcubierre at heights of 700-800 metres dominates the plains of the Ebro Depression and who controlled the sierra would control the northern access to Zaragoza, and so the Republican spent great efforts trying to break through the front here. The trenches, refuges and other military remains have been now restored and rebuilt as part of the so-called Ruta George Orwell. Panels explain the historical context.

Orwell was not in high spirits when he arrived in the village of Alcubierre:

It was vile weather, with alternate mist and rain. The narrow earth roads had been churned into a sea of mud, in places two feet deep, through which the lorries struggled with racing wheels and the peasants led their clumsy carts which were pulled by strings of mules, sometimes as many as six in a string, always pulling tandem. The constant come-and-go of troops had reduced the village to a state of unspeakable filth. It did not possess and never had possessed such a thing as a lavatory or a drain of any kind, and there was not a square yard anywhere where you could tread without watching your step. The church had long been used as a latrine; so had all the fields for a quarter of a mile round. I never think of my first two months at war without thinking of wintry stubble fields whose edges are crusted with dung. More here including his rather negative views on Aragonese villages.

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Links

• Good page in Spanish with lots of details and maps of the front.
• Orwell on the Aragon Front Good article: “His period in and around Alcubierre is notable for a number of reasons though.  Firstly it was in Alcubierre that he received his first weapon for use in the war against fascism.  He said though: ‘I got a shock of dismay when I saw the thing they gave me.’  It turned  out to be a gun more than 40 years old – a German Mauser from 1896!  Indeed the reality of ‘civil war within the civil war’ that was, at this time, beginning to gain momentum on the Republican side was brought home to him starkly by this key incident.
• The George Orwell route
• Photo of the Aragon Front Orwell is pictured with other members of the POUM, and his wife Eileen. She had been staying in Barcelona while Orwell fought.

The granite peak of Almanzor (2592 m) is the highest mountain in the Sistema Central, the range that cuts the great Meseta of Spain in two. It crowns an immense glacial cirque in the Sierra de Gredos, known as the Circo de Gredos (read about legend below). The mountain is also known as Pico de Almanzor and Moro Almanzor.

Almanzor takes its name from Al-Mansur (the victorious), the de facto Moorish ruler of Al-Andalus during the late 10th-early 11th centuries. His rule marked what was probably the peak of Islamic power in Spain. Legend has it that Al-Mansur passed by here after a terrible battle with the Christians. He was taken by the beauty of the mountains which at the time functioned as a frontier between Islamic Spain and the Christian lands, and so he decided to set up camp for the night. Under the stars, he was captivated by the stories of shepherds from the area. They told him than in the heart of these mountains, terrible noises could be heard that would echo along the gullies and ravines, and which would shake the very hearts of the people of these parts. The next day, the Moorish king bade the shepherds to lead him to the place they spoke of: a magnificent cirque in centre of the Gredos mountains. When the company reached the place, they were greeted by a deafening silence. Fearful of the Kings reaction, they began to shout his name, which the mountain duly returned amplified as an echo.

Almanzor is only recommended for experienced climbers.

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Wikipedia in Spanish (above image)

Climbing Almanzor Good practical info including “Camping is forbidden in the Park but it’s difficult for a ranger to find your tent out of the route to Laguna Grande and Circo de Gredos. Many people camp near Refugio Elola at night but they may be fined it the ranger feels like it.”

The great Spanish naturalist Félix Rodríguez de la Fuente was born in the village of Poza de la Sal. He described the village of his birth as a “human community” in “harmonious coexistence with the landscapes” which formed a “zoomorphic universe”. As a child he began to explore the natural area, watching and learning about the wildlife of area, which would later greatly influence his vision of the world. One day he saw a peregrine catch a duck here which led him to the world of falconry and then into natural history film making.

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Poza de la Sal itself enjoyed a period of splendour thanks to its salt industry, active since Roman time. They are considered most important salt works in Northern Spain together with Añana in the Basque Country. Some of the workings have been restored as can be seen in this photo (from Amigos de las salinas de Poza de la Sal – good description of history of salt production here.)

Links

• Wikipedia on Poza de la Sal (first image)
• Wikiepdia on Félix Rodríguez de la Fuente
• Félix Rodríguez de la Fuente on iberianature