This is probably going to be an unusual concept for those of you back in the UK......abandoned towns and villages. Well it's estimated there are about 2500 of them here in Spain (mainly in the North).......most of which were abandoned in the 60's and 70's. Some are even up for sale with Estate Agents!
Why were they abandoned? They were generally remote farming communities and the youngsters moved out to the cities to find work. Once the older people had died they became ghost towns.
And that's the case with Retamalejo......which is situated in a very remote location in the province of Murcia! At it's peak there were 25 dwellings, and it actually managed to finally get electricity in the 1960's! It was completely abandoned in 1980, and what you see here is was what's left of the dwellings in 2020!
This trip was hard......had to ride a fair bit offroad to access it. And despite leaving early in the morning it got very hot (43C), very quickly. By the time I'd walked round there in the heat my hands were shaking so much I was struggling to take any more pics! I gave up after about half a minute of vid as the camera was going all over the place! Yes it was that bad.......and I actually ended up with heatstroke!
Just to give you a bit of perspective.....abandoned villages like this are literally dead ends. There's no passing traffic, mainly because there's normally no roads. So you're in an extremely remote and forgotten part of the Spanish interior, you won't get a phone signal, and packs of vultures circle overhead!
I'm not trying to present these trips as some sort of "Indiana Jones" type of expedition, it's just that looking at pics and vids doesn't give the full picture, because there are a lot of other variables involved besides......none of which you have control over!
You always need to have complete and utter confidence in the vehicle you're using for this sort of stuff, because with no phone signal and no passing traffic you're on your own. It better start!
As my hands were shaking taking these pics I remember thinking to myself.....why am I still doing crazy shit like this at 66? Well people said I was mad at 16......so why break the habit of a lifetime? And ultimately it's a better option than giving in to old age!
So here we go......here's Retamalejo......let me know what you think?
Why were they abandoned? They were generally remote farming communities and the youngsters moved out to the cities to find work. Once the older people had died they became ghost towns.
And that's the case with Retamalejo......which is situated in a very remote location in the province of Murcia! At it's peak there were 25 dwellings, and it actually managed to finally get electricity in the 1960's! It was completely abandoned in 1980, and what you see here is was what's left of the dwellings in 2020!
This trip was hard......had to ride a fair bit offroad to access it. And despite leaving early in the morning it got very hot (43C), very quickly. By the time I'd walked round there in the heat my hands were shaking so much I was struggling to take any more pics! I gave up after about half a minute of vid as the camera was going all over the place! Yes it was that bad.......and I actually ended up with heatstroke!
Just to give you a bit of perspective.....abandoned villages like this are literally dead ends. There's no passing traffic, mainly because there's normally no roads. So you're in an extremely remote and forgotten part of the Spanish interior, you won't get a phone signal, and packs of vultures circle overhead!
I'm not trying to present these trips as some sort of "Indiana Jones" type of expedition, it's just that looking at pics and vids doesn't give the full picture, because there are a lot of other variables involved besides......none of which you have control over!
You always need to have complete and utter confidence in the vehicle you're using for this sort of stuff, because with no phone signal and no passing traffic you're on your own. It better start!
As my hands were shaking taking these pics I remember thinking to myself.....why am I still doing crazy shit like this at 66? Well people said I was mad at 16......so why break the habit of a lifetime? And ultimately it's a better option than giving in to old age!
So here we go......here's Retamalejo......let me know what you think?
