15 th Sept Cuenca to Los Majadas

We set off to visit the Enchanted City, not on our Camino but highly recommended, and as we have the car, we can venture off route. It is not far from Cuenca but up in the mountains. All was good until we stopped to take pictures of the Ajúcar river that was such a beautiful deep turquoise colour and Peter realised he had left his walking stick back at the Airbnb. The road was very winding so we had to find a spot to turn before we could return. Fortunately our host was at the place getting ready to clean and had noticed Pete’s special stick. He had brought it from the Via de la plata walk and customised it with Camino pins and crystals so it is very important to him.

The drive was spectacular. All the length of the gorge till we crested the mountains into forest. I finally saw some deer grazing.

When we arrived at the Enchanted City we were almost the only ones there so it was peaceful. The formations were so much fun and the geography of the rocks was very interesting but beyond my true understanding. Dolomite rock acted on by a chemical reaction between oxygen, carbon, magnesium and calcium plus water and time.

So many different shapes we were enchanted but a bit nonplussed when two bus loads of tourists came walking toward us going the opposite way! We were glad we were nearly finished the walk around. After reviving coffees we headed to Los Majadas. It is a mountain town in a bowl surrounded by forest. While we killed time before we could go to our Airbnb we set off on a hunt for a shop and provisions. Another shop that required local knowledge but ironically we were actually parked outside! This only became apparent after we had scoured all the streets and the understanding of what the bar owner had told us finally registered.

While we regrouped a small mob of horses wandered through town. See the shop behind – no tiendra signs again.

We headed off to our place and after a little while the owner arrived and let us in. We had time for a walk out to Los Callejones a place similar to the enchanted city. It was a delightful walk through oak forest and we saw a deer and fawn. There were lots of these strange purple flowers that spring from the dirt. No leaves or stems and wild thyme and wild lavender made it a fragrant walk. We were distracted by a great view over the valley and then had to cut across the open plain to rejoin the road to the Rock formation park.