Route for Ortuella - Ortuella - Guía de Recursos Turísticos

Route for Ortuella

Ortuella Square at the foot of the church of San Felix de Cantalicio, wake up our steps to the beat of whistle. We head towards the strident whistle from the Railway Station. A few tens of years separate us from the hustle and bustle of wagons loaded with minerals such as towed by locomotives or Putxet Galdames, now converted into modern railway passengers. We will leave the station on the left to cross the tracks. Cross the road up to Gallarta, leaving the right Bar Gallo.
A strong repecho concrete leads directly to the only existing oven roasting Bilbao Mine, Mine and currently farms. The oven barely used.
On his left, saving the piles of limestone sand, we come to some stairs in the back leading to the first balcony and opened a rusty gate with care to observe it. The darkness is without knocking. In our heads seem to hear a load of those who got the retacadores with hazel sticks and rags soaked in clay for dynamite does not explode by the enormous heat prevailed. A small hole, and a burden! Bang!, Ore below ...
At ground level a loading chute to let the cars and then ... road and blanket. The last trolley which remained for decades in the lap of the furnace was brought to the Museum of Mining Gallarta which can be seen and kept it deserves along with many other useful tools and mining.
Leave the oven with regret that brings memories of childhood and start again facing another steep climb.
We arrived at the square where the District Saugal between mining houses, some refurbished, others in full decline, highlights a figurine of San Juan.
We choose to go up the ramp to the left from a small park swings. In a few meters a pass that seems very low tunnel will comb the flequillo.
The bark of a dog tells us that the road that descends is not adequate to meet and continue to climb with some barracks located on the oven, antique shops of the mine machinery Bilbao, where horse stables to remember that served bags of beans feed services, mining, office receipts ...
Everything in ruin, mining the memory almost as if it were not for half a dozen people who are responsible for keeping it alive.
The road is often filled with mud. Move to the next quarry. discarding track down and going to an area where rocks and stones near crowded buildings destroyed. It is a landscape from desert and abandoned while the ubiquitous Serantes be seen cutting the horizon.
A few other young willow while we appreciated the visit by plain exhausted our steps. The track forks and chose the left, despite its large tilt to the time a herd of goats scared away quickly.
The rise zigzaguea. Leaves a landing to rest a few seconds to observe the deep hole in the quarry.
Another subidón leads to a curve in the road ends and Gallarta Orconera. Our feet step on the road between a surreal environment full of uncontrolled dumps and tailings lying in the vicinity of the mine Socavón Shell, under the beautiful karst La Barga.
Slightly more than four hundred meters of asphalt us to drift towards Cadegal where we seem to have reached an oasis. The solitary plaza punctuated by a mimosa, acacia and eucalyptus distinguished by its height between the fruit trees. Down the center of a right Ortuella and mining oven very strange type of single-FLEISNER Apold, alongside the flags of the river gorge industrial Granada and very close to the area of sport and recreation in the municipality.
Across the quarry is responsible for destroying all by itself.
The environment has changed suddenly cooler. Green versus red. Piazza Cadegal shows a tower that apodar say Hamlet. At his side, a small monument brings to mind the famous master Bonifacio Pinedo Quincoces. We recall as well as other teachers Gibaja Catalina, and Victor Ugalde Marcelino Uriarte Capelastegui.
From this vantage point we see all Ortuella, a town hit by the mine that still suffers the legacy of that past so close.
A hint of concrete, from the low single square, invites us to return to the town of Ortuella. We left a laundry room on our right to a little later to find the last house surrounded by big Cadegal cherry.
Resulted in a concrete runway. It has rained and slips so we chose the soft grass that surrounds it. The zigzag of the track but we prefer to save shortcuts to move forward with confidence. With a little exercise abstraction places we see, among grass and limestone, of great beauty. We leave it to our left a small water tank. Below one minute, after leaving behind a dirt track, another shell-shaped tipper truck transporting these petroleum products. Choose the track that comes close to his side. Rozamos around pylons near a large green gate, are part of the line of buckets or aerial tram linking Gallarta with the Franco-Belgian Urien near the quarry.
The road is narrow. We left the first house on your left. Choose an alley between the house and next to observe a tunnel under the pylons above. Like many others across the mining area, was used by neighbors as a shelter during the civil war.
We return again to enter the alley in the neighborhood of Golifar. A road, with a somewhat curious gap in the house No 28 will approach the area of the municipality.
The neighborhood seems anchored decades ago. The boxes, stacked together, the odor of mining, including some social neglect. Without further ado we crossed the tracks in the back of the hall where at one time were carried out competitions specialist workers in the mine: borers.
We give our last steps before reaching the hall. Between mountains of limestone gravel we see again the oven roasting of Bilbao next to the mine about a green meadow sauteed fruit. A gentle breeze scented hair iron rock at making us feel better.

Dirección

48530 Ortuella - Bizkaia