2025 September: Loarre Castle to Lumbier

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We hear light rain when we wake and there is a pitter-pattering on the roof when we wake at Loarre Castle Camping. It is not heavy but enough to wet the ground. We shower in the old and well-used showers; while the cubicles just need ripping out and replacing (photos below), the water is good and hot. By the time we breakfast the rain has stopped, we sit and plan our route to take in some visits to other castles. I walk around the site and find the service points in three different locations not exactly camper-friendly or motorhome friendly but I know where each of them is:

drinking water next to the shower/toilet block
toilet cassette emptying point in the middle of the main path near shower/toilet block
grey water drive-over drain across path at main gate

Unfortunately an inept Frenchman pulls in front of us as we are leaving. He tries to drive his moho over the toilet cassette drain, a small hole in the middle of the internal path not intended for grey water. There is much shunting backwards and forwards to get the outlet pipe aligned, and thus blocking the road and preventing everyone else (and himself) from emptying our toilet cassettes. After finally positioning himself over quite a small hole he opens the outlet! I explain to his wife (she speaks English) that there is very large grey water grid by the entrance gate. She just shrugs and says… ‘You’ll have to wait’. While he is waiting (and we all stand watching) he attaches the drinking water hose to his vehicle, turns on the water tap and leaves it unattended. It fills his tank and, inevitable when his tank is full the water splurts and gushes out everywhere, pouring down the side of his vehicle and all over the dirt road. What a mess. He seems oblivious to all of this and eventually goes to turn the water tap off. While he stands around observing all this, I have filled our water tank using a watering can (one less job to do when we finally get there)!

At last… but he only drives forward by 6-foot, off the toilet cassette drain but still blocking everyone else’s path. Mr C. who is patiently standing by with our full toilet cassette in hand, nips ahead of him and empties our cassette down the drain, rinsing it with a bottle of water he already has filled in readiness and we are done! Meanwhile, I have filled our water tank with watering cans. Both jobs done while he has faffed with his pipes and hoses. Driving past him we get to the grey water drain by the gate, drive over it and empty our grey water. Now we are blocking his path… ha ha ha! What a charade, thank goodness it is not busy, there would be a queue and some quite irate moho drivers!

It is about 11.00am by this time and we are on our way on the bendy A-1206 through Ayerbe (a lovely Spanish village) onto A-132 and a much better road. Driving in the direction of Riglos and Agüero we pass the massive red Mallos at the village of Murillo de Gállego on to Embalse de la Peña where we cross the reservoir on the old white-painted metal girder bridge. The road turns west and follows the river along a high and bendy mountainous road. It is possible to look down and see the white-water rafters riding the rapids in their bright orange inflatable rafts on the turquoise green water. The rock on our left is sheer and netted, the drop on our right is sheer and protected by crash barrier, through several tunnels it is a stunning piece of road.

The road is narrow and full of tortuous bends and at Jaca de Salinas the road improvement scheme starts. The next 13km of road is part of a major widening project to straighten the bends and widen this section of road. There are huge earth moving trucks and digging gougers with wheels alone higher than Hymer. Whole sections of solid rock have been cut away and new concrete bridge sections are being constructed and poured to cross deep undulating sections and/or remove bends around them. It is slow travelling but fascinating to see such a massive civil engineering project in process. The 13km of road works section finish at Bailo.

From Bailo we continue on A-132 to Puente la Reina de Jaca and turn west on N-240. Just after Canal de Berdün we join A-21 a good fast road past Escó and Embalse de Yesa to Yesa. Here we turn onto NA-5410, another bendy road with a very poor surface, to Javier our destination and good car park for visiting the Castillo de Javier. We park and have lunch. It is 1.30pm, there is no shade in the car park, the day is still and unbearably hot, it is 31°C but feels much hotter. We walk the short distance to the Castillo, pay the €3.50 each in a deliciously cool, air-conditioned reception, get the notes in English and start the tour of the Castillo. It has been wonderfully refurbished (but is not air-conditioned) to show the life of one of Spain’s well known Catholic ‘missionary’, born in Javier who travelled the world to bring the ‘good news of Jesus Christ’.

We learn that Franciso Javier was born in the castle on 7th April 1506 and around the age of 19 years, left his parental home to study at the Sorbonne in Paris. Here he met Ignatius of Loyola who was to lead Javier to change the course of his life. He travelled to Rome, met the pope and was ordained priest. From here he became a missionary travelling to India, Malaysia, Ceylon and Japan. While travelling on to China he was taken by fever and died in 1552. The whole castle is a beautifully restored in every way, no expense has been spared, it was a real pleasure to visit.

From the Castillo we walked 50m to Basilica de San Francisco Javier. It has an impressive, elevated frontage with about 20 steps up to the front entrance (perhaps there were no wheelchairs or disabled people in Javier’s day) huge arched doorway with two solid oak studded doors into the church. Inside it is cool, and it is relatively plain for a Catholic church, flagged floor, stone pillars with oak pews. Above the alter there are 12 arched niches one for each disciple, with Jesus in the middle and some wonderful stained glass windows showing scenes of Jesus’ life. We spend some time in the relative cool in reflection and contemplation and give thanks for safe travels so far.

It is about 6.00pm as we walk back to the carpark, the heat intense and oppressive, Mr C. feeling light-headed. The temperature is only in the low thirties and we wonder why we are experiencing such intense malaise. Back at Hymer, we put the air conditioning on and, retracing our track on NA-5410 to A-21 we drive past Liédena to Junc.35 (and the Nordex factory where the blades for wind turbines are made). There are rows of blades lying in stacks on the ground, the shorter ones 52m and the others are enormous, 100m in length. Taking NA-150 the short distance to the town of Lumbier, we find the Aire for Autocaravanas tuck away behind the main street. It is free but has NO facilities, just a level parking area with 9 pitches and tree shade. There are four mohos already here, we make number 5. We park on the end spot, a sparsely grassed area under a walnut trees, their large leaves hanging down providing lots of shade. We stop and, still too hot to do much, open a bottle of cold fizz and snack on baguette and hummus. We begin to feel better and I cook paella for tea. It is going dark by the time we have finished eating. The heat is intense and thick black clouds are rolling in over the mountains. We clear the dishes and wash up, not much a couple of plates, glasses and the paella pan. The sky is an ominous and threatening rain… sure enough a blue-white flash fills the darkness followed by those associated rumbles.

The rumbles are getting louder and the flashes more intense, the door is open but no air seems to be moving. Then the first spatters of rain fall, like someone throwing a handful of pebbles at the side of Hymer. The table and chairs are still outside along with Mr C.’s sandals. First, I bring in his sandals and by the time I go back for the table to pass it inside (no time to open the locker) the raindrops are as big as £2 coins! I go back for the chairs and get a soaking!! Mr C. folds the chairs up and we put them along with the table in the bathroom. It is now quite dark, we open all the blinds and watch the light-show: almost constant lightning flashes and immediate crashes of thunder. On and on it goes, torrents of water pouring down the hill overflowing the deep gutters. It begins to pass over and just when we think it has finished another almighty flash and almost instantaneous crack of thunder and round two starts.

It is difficult to know how long it lasts, maybe an hour or hour and a half, a lot of rain has fallen. We send a video to the family and get one back showing the M60 junction at Urmston Road in Manchester flooded and cars driving through 8 or 9 inches of water… it is everywhere. It stops at last, it is about 9.30pm and the air is cooling a little and we begin to feel better. Of course… our malaise was the intensity of the pre-thunderstorm heat.