picture gallery

Mention La Rioja and most people immediately would probably think of wine. Yet La Rioja , so I have discovered, is a tourist’s paradise, full of spectacular scenery and numerous sites of historical interest

Devon (6715 square kilometres) is just one third bigger than La Rioja but has three and a half times more inhabitants (925,000). By comparison with Devon, La Rioja

is sparsely populated. In the north it consists of a wide fertile river valley, covered for the most part with vines, olive and almond trees. Higher up towards the Sierra de Cantabria in the Bask Country the cooler slopes are planted with wheat. In the south extensive mountainous ranges stretch in huge twists and folds further than the eye can see. Lower down they are covered in oak and pine and higher up with low evergreen scrub, heather and broom, finally tapering to bald crests of bare rock. These ranges are cut from south to north by steep sided valleys and five associated rivers: the Cicada, Leza, Iregua, Nejarilla and the Oja, which feed the Ebro, the economic, social and political artery of La Rioja.

I arrived in La Rioja in September but didn’t get out on my bike till the beginning of October. I had done one car journey to the southern ranges and decided first to explore the more accessible Sierra Cantabria to the north. After fourteen miles of steady climbing I arrived in Meano, enjoying panoramic views over the Sierra and the Ebro plain and distant ranges of the south. At that time of the year the grapes had not been picked and I passed through mile after mile of vineyards. The harvest is now over and the leaves have turned from green to every imaginable shade of brown and gold. The custom here after the main harvest is for people to go into he fields and help themselves quite legally to the left overs – a refreshing juicy treat, I can assure you, after a few hours’ riding.

I was beginning to get the feel of the area by now and decided to explore the hills to the south. A visit to the local bookshop, Santos Ochoa, and I was equipped with a Mappa Provincial of La Rioja. These 1:200,000 maps cover the whole of Spain by department and are produced by the Ministerio de Obras, Transportes y Medio Ambiente. As well as showing longitude and latitude these larger scale maps are divided into numbered squares, each one of which corresponds to four 1:25,000 maps numbered I – IV. I didn’t buy these detailed maps to start with but noticed from the larger scale map that numerous paths led into the mountains. I attempted an excursion into an area which I came particularly to like: the Cameros. After following the Jubera valley for about 7 miles through Ventas Blancas and Robres del Castillo, I eventually came to the start of a track which took me higher and deeper into the range. The thought of a café con leche became more appealing as the day wore on. When I spotted the little village of La Santa perched on the side of hill I thought my luck was in. As I approached, however, I noticed that the windows of the houses were missing and eventually discovered that the whole village was deserted. Not a café con leche in sight. I spent a good hour exploring the almost intact remains of the houses, imaging the life of the people who had lived there some forty or so years before. The church, which occupied the highest point, was now a shelter for cows and the floor was covered in a thick layer of dung. The statue of the Virgin above the altar had been removed and faint traces of sky blue and red paint contrasted with the remains of damp whitewash. Late in the afternoon I left the village and attempted to find my way to San Roman de Cameros and the main road back to Ribafrecha where I had parked the car. No such luck. Reading a network of mountain paths from a 1:200,000 map was a fanciful idea in the first. place. Two hours before dark and after about another seven miles of descent along bumpy mountain tracks I saw a village and two men on their way to an allotment. In very faulty Spanish I managed to establish that I had completely lost my way and was now just outside Muñilla and a good 50 miles from the car. No point labouring back up the path and risking getting lost after nightfall. I followed the main road round the bottom of the range, descending for many miles, eventually along a very smooth surfaced main road with a cycle path all the way along it through Arnedillo, Arnedo eventually reaching Ausejo after dark. There I turned off onto a lane which took me after further exhausting climbing by moonlight back to Ribafrecha and the car. It was 11.30 p.m.

It took me two further attempts to find the right combination of paths from La Santa to San Roman, this time armed with four 1:25,000 topographical maps, numbered 242-I, II, III and IV. I had a torch with me and a compass which I used several times to check directions. The view from the top of the path leading up from La Santa was breathtaking – mountains as far as you could see layered in infinite shades of blue, red and purple.

I subsequently discovered that 65% of the population of La Rioja lives in the provincial capital, Logroño. What was originally a quiet provincial town built for horse and cart has been transformed over the years into the third most important commercial centre in Spain and a traffic nightmare. It must compare closely for irritation, noise and fumes with London.. A visit to the local library, where I consulted an encyclopaedia of local history, revealed that there has been a gradual depopulation of the villages in La Rioja since the beginning of the 20th Century. Tobia, a hamlet on a tributary of the Najerilla, for example, has a winter population of about 74 people, expanding to 170 odd in the summer. Quite a few people seem to have two homes and retreat for the summer holidays to the hills where it’s cooler, leaving their second homes in the hills empty for months on end. In the case of small communities like La Santa, isolated in the higher reaches of the Cameros, it was too costly to build asphalted roads with the advent of the motorised transport, to install electricity lines or lay pipes for running water. The young people gradually migrated to the towns in the valleys where the work and money were. Parents aged, waited longingly for their children to visit them at weekends or holidays. In time the older inhabitants of the villages died with no one to replace them.

Since those early excursions I have spent as much time as possible exploring the ranges of the Camero Nuevo and Camero Viejo – their delightful, compact villages of bright yellow and ochre houses with their squares of rickety red tiles, nestling in valleys and perched on barren hillsides, cycling mile upon mile completely fascinated by the massive rock folds and vast resounding solitude of this remote and primeval land. It has to be experienced, not described.

A mountain bike is an essential requirement for exploration of this area. I have hardly used my THORN since I have been here. At some point you have to leave the road to experience the area fully. In the Ebro plain the roads are full-blown main roads with great convoys of transporters thundering along them and the cycling is not particularly interesting anyway. Although there is a three-foot cycle path along most main roads, passing lorries almost blow you off your bike, especially pedalling at low speed. The best way to get to the foot of the hills is not along these busy roads, but on the unmetalled tracks which lace their way amid the vineyards and olive groves.

I recently took part in a two-hour jaunt with a local cycle group. They are dedicated mountain-bikers, bikes stripped down to the bare minimum with front and rear suspension. Most of those taking part were lean and eager-looking under 35 year olds and seemed to mean business. About 40 of us left the cycle shop in the Calle de la Duquesa de la Victoria on Saturday afternoon at 4.00 p.m. for a two-hour bash at break-neck speed along a network of local tracks to Lardero and back to Logroño, total distance 20 miles. My MARIN was quite an oddity with its regulation CTC mudguards, fixed forks, dynamo, and saddle bags. The shop, José-Mari bikes, has several branches in Logroño and is a TREK agent. I had never been along the local tracks before, and I was interested to discover how extensive they are – obviously the way to get from A to B without being annoyed by lorries.

I am now nearing the end of my stay in Spain and will leave it with some regret. Because of the high concentration of people living in Logroño and the situation with second homes in surrounding villages, it is very difficult to find cheap, convenient accommodation. Though food prices are still relatively low, flat prices are very high and holiday homes almost impossible to find. However, there are hostels for ramblers and cyclists at a cost of about £6 per night. The one I saw in San Roman de Cameros was very clean with 12 beds in one dormitory. There were excellent washing and showering facilities but nowhere to store food or make a hot meal. Details of other hostels in the area can be obtained from:

Altura para desarrollo turistico,
Centro de Informaciones Turisticas,
‘El Horreo’,
26122 PRADILLO,
Spain.

Tel: 941 46 21 51 / FAX 941 46 21 47
Email alturas@arrakis.es