Almost Half of Guadix Live Underground…
Zagan the motorhome’s a stone’s throw from the centre of Guadix in Andalucia, in a large gravel area up against the town’s huge but bone-dry river bed. We’re in the official Guadix autocaravana parking area, which has a service point and costs the grand sum of nothing (N37.30436, W3.13334). We’ve made an attempt to give something back, eating a stomach-busting three course menú del día each at a restaurant in the Plaza de la Constitución, although that only depleted the Team Zagan war chest by the somewhat meager amount of €27, including tip and drinks, and we’ll have had two night’s free parking thrown in. Thank you Guadix.
Guadix has proven to be a bit of a find for us. We expected nothing of it, just another stopping off point as we aim our way towards Córdoba. One of Spain’s many toll-free, traffic-devoid motorways propelled us here, with a short detour into Baza to stock up on diesel and GPL for our gasIT tanks. Strictly speaking we didn’t need the gas (we can carry about 32 litres and had only used 14 litres in the past 4 weeks), but I’m a tad nervous of running out of the stuff like we did at the start of this trip. When we first came to Spain back in 2011, there were only a few LPG filling plants across the country, and we had to plan ahead to make sure we could find gas. These days it’s available in tons of places, Repsol garages in particular, and there really wasn’t any need for us to squeeze into the one we squeezed into… elbows in folks (there was a wall in front, so we reversed back out).
Guadix, it turns out, has the largest inhabited cave neighborhood in Europe, with almost half the town’s population living in over 2000 caves, in the Barrio Troglodyte. From the motorhome area, a bridge over the part-time river takes you to the cathedral in about 5 minutes. Alongside that’s the tourist info office and from there it’s maybe a 20 minute walk across the town’s meandering streets into the caves. The twisting streets are a legacy of the North Africans who built the original medina here a few hundred years back, on the site of a Roman settlement. On the way to the caves, we nipped into the Iglesia de San Miguel and eyeballed the ceiling: an ancient Muslim pattern called Mudejar, set high in a Catholic place of worship, reflecting Spain’s mixed-religion past.
A map from the tourist office shows three viewpoints, of which the Mirador del Cerro de la Bala is by far the best, with views out across the hard mud Badlands and white-washed cave entrances and chimneys, with the snow-coated Sierra Nevada as a magnificent backdrop. The two of us spent a good half hour up there, trying to take in both the details and the expanse of it all. On the way, a couple of locals sat warming up in the morning sun had given us a friendly buenos, offset by an angry wee dog way below us. The tiny beasty barked herself braver as she made her way up the hillside a few tiny leaps at a time to see us off her patch, making us both smile.
Guadix has a few other claims to fame, although we’ve not experienced ’em for ourselves. For one, a scene from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade was filmed here, using a steam train at the local station about a mile from us. Word is it took 12 days to set up the filming, which itself took 2 days and used a load of locals dressed up as Turks. They were paid half a month’s wages for their efforts. Another is the Cascamorros festival in September. This sees a bloke from Guadix, referred to as the, wait for it, Cascamarros, dressed up like a harlequin, carrying a truncheon and a wooden stick with a bladder hanging from it. His job is to try and get to the Church of Merced in Baza and nick a religious painting without getting daubed with paint. The citizens of Baza know he’s coming, every year, same day, same time, and every year everyone gets covered in paint. Once he’s in Baza, the Cascamorros (by this time head to toe in Dulux) has to come back to Guadix where, when the citizens see he’s not managed to half-inch the painting, again, cover him in yet more paint, wayhey!
We’re enjoying our time in Guadix. The motorhome parking’s incredibly convenient for the town, and despite being a tiny bit scabby (it’s not the Ritz folks), feels safe and welcoming. We’re a stone’s throw from a ton of shops, bars and restaurants. The late February weather is fantastic, the people are friendly and the cave area is a fascination (the only similar thing we’ve seen was in Matera in Italy, and everyone had been forced to move out of it ages ago). We’ll have another night here and decide tomorrow where to head off to next. We’ve been to all of the obvious targets on our route: Granada and the magnificent Alhambra, the mountains of the Sierra Nevada and the famous hill villages of the Alpujarras, so it’ll be somewhere new. As ever, watch this space.
Cheers folks, Jay
*surreptitiously adds another place to list*
Hi guys – we’re following with even more interest than usual as we hit Bilbao in a couple of weeks for ten weeks of mayhem 😄 Can’t wait! Thanks for your recent emai advice re SSL – you were right, it wasn’t as daunting as I thought so Vince is now all https’d up..!
Safe travels
Love Ken & Gill
Hello!
Having followed you onscreen for a few years we seem in imminent danger of actually crossing paths in real life! We are currently heading south from Santander, through wonderful Extremadura. We’ve been through this gem of a region a couple of times in the past, in the cold, but this time are lingering even longer, enjoying the unseasonably warm weather. Right now we are at an acsi site in the Valle de Jerte, pre-cherry blossom, exploring on our bikes. Off to Monfrague for excellent birding next and then heading down to Seville via Merida.
We think you might like Cazorla if you fancy deviating a little northwards en route to Cordoba. The natural park is a lovely place for hiking/jogging and the little town is delightful. We stayed in an orchard but it had rather hairy access especially last year in mud and ice! There is a large area just outside the town with extensive views. It’s La Iruela on Park4Night.
Sorry this is long, so much to say. We have a blog if you’re interested – Peter writes it.
Glad you’ve got your travel mojo back.
Gill
Thanks Gill, the La Iruela Aire looks great, although we’ve moved west now so are some way from it – one for another time! Please send your blog URL and we’ll add it to our list if you like? Cheers, happy travels, Jay
Hi both, Mark and I are excited newbie motorhomers, having taken the plunge and bought an early retirement present for ourselves last September, AJ, an Autotrail Imala. We’re loving your website and the blog, both for practical information and travel ideas. We’re in a great spot on the Costa del Sol for a week that was booked pre AJ purchase and are avidly reading about your Spanish wanderings. Had to thank you for your menu del dia tips as we ate like kings for 9 euros each in Nerja in a cafe we’d have bypassed without having read your blog – ¡muchas gracias!
You’re welcome Debbie, happy travels and enjoy those menus!! Jay
Good morning
There are cave dwellings in France too, north of us on the Cher river. We had to go inside of one for business and were given a full tour, just amazing.