I had heard enough about it to contemplate giving it a miss but then again it was the silly season, almost new year and we needed a place to hang out, avoid the crowds (krauts?) fill batteries, fresh water, hot showers & so on, so we went to Tabernas anyway.
The Tabernas Desert is the place where Sergio Leone and several other European directors shot their western movies. Some great films were made here: “Once upon a time in the West”, “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” and apparently “Lawrence of Arabia” was shot here to mention a few.
The land is completely barren, with dry riverbeds, canyons. All possible shapes of wind and water erosion are to be seen. To get a good look you’d want a cross bike, a 4WD vehicle, a mountainbike or more fitting a horse.
The main tourist attractions are little western movie sets, partly original sets, others just tourist traps that offer western shows including shootouts, showdowns, horse shows – whatever..
Apparently another attraction of the area is the Circuito de Almeria . The first campervan area we checked out was quite close to it. The noise of screaming engines could be heard from not so far away and the place was dominated by guys with leather gear, helmets and fast looking motorbikes. We moved on.
We found all the comforts in a private little campervan parking close to the town of Tabernas and set out to explore on the bikes.
The town itself is OK, but nothing to write home about. It has a castle on a hilltop watching over it that we did not visit. A pity because I imagine the views would be quite spectacular, but we were on bikes and did not want to do the 100 or so meters in altitude.
We got lost a little and had to carry the bikes down some slopes, found some pretty canyons and pretty views, noticed that dry river beds tend to be sandy and not really nice to bike in, biked up a creek that started to smell like the outflow of a piggery and finally made it back home semi impressed.
There was no one overly interesting in the parking, so we slept through new year, drove off and went for a new years hike – this time we found some really interesting canyons.
I find the Tabernas Desert is worth taking a look at, even if you are not into touristy western shows. You will have to go and explore though and that can be challenging.
I have not yet found a relyable way to plan a hike or bike ride in Spain. Even tracks I take from sources like Komoot tend to abruptly end on gates or just stop existing. So you have to be prepared to climb a fence, ignore private property signs or turn around and try something different which might involve serious detours.
Adventure awaits…