Ojos Negros Greenway Part 1

On this journey through the "Ojos Negros" Greenway, I did make a quick 5 nights trip, starting and finishing in Mallorca, my residence place, in May 2023. This time I would make a solo trip without my Drone Operator, Tiago xD

On this first part of the video, I cycled from my house to Palma (Mallorca) port, in order to take a ferry to Valencia. I was a bit cautious about the weather, I was expecting some wavy trip, but in the end was ok.

I spent the whole afternoon in the ferry, finishing the day cycling through Valencia beautifull city center, on the way to my hostel.

After a night spent at some nice Hindu´s place, I took a train in the stunning Valencia train station, to Monreal del Campo, a small village lost in the imensity of Aragón region (Spain).

From Monreal del Campo, I followed some roads breaking the wind (or the wind breaking me), untill I finally reached the starting point of the Ojos Negros greenway, at the old Sierra Menera´s Iron Ore mine.

A small description about the history of this former railway down the page, for the interested ones @

From there, and after a quick climbing to the old silos storage, I started rolling down this old track.

First stop, I went to have a look at the old Miners neighbourhood, where there are still people living.

A few km´s down the track, I found some old Railway related buildings, envolved in that mistery environment, normal in abandoned places. In a selfish way, I really enjoy that kind of athmosphere.

Along the way untill Santa Eulalia del Campo, is possible to visualise the two railways infraestrutures, respectively narrow and Iberian gauge ones, the second, Active from the 70´s, when the narrow gauge was closed. Perhaps the most curious, a small montain with the two tunnels close to each other, where we can appreciate the different dimensions of these two gauges.

After arriving to Santa Eulalia del Campo, it would be posible to follow again the old railway canal.

Evening was quickly approaching, it was time to start to find some camping place, which became very difficult in the valley that railway was built, due to the strong winds, hopefully tailwinds, but anyway difficult to camp. Also, there was a lack of trees to hide myself. So, after a wuick google maps reasearch, I discovered a small montain Hut.

The rest of the afternoon it was spent climbing to the valley´s adjacent montain, in order to reach the hut. It was worth it every effort under a threatening rain fall. In the end, just some drops, and I even had some sunlight arriving to the Hut. Finishing this part, a really nice overnight in the hut, with a small fireplace to enjoy some heat.

________________________________________________________________________________________

@
This former narrow gauge railway was built in 1907, in order to transport the Iron Ore from Ojos Negros mines to Sagunt sea port, and also to the steel mill, property from the same company (Compañia Minera de Sierra Menera).

This company originally tried to include its traffic in the already running Calatayud-Sagunt railway line, but some disagreements related to the costs, made this company to build a whole new railway, almost side by side with the Main line. As it was exclusivelly a freight railway, it avoided the villages.

In 1972 Sierra Menera signed with Renfe the property change to the national railways company. Having this in Mind, and in order to make stuff logic, they adapted the railways between the Ojos Negros mines and Santa Eulália train station to the Iberian gauge, where it connects to the main railway network. The rest of the narrow gauge was abandoned.

By the time I ran this greenway, the final strecth between Sagunt and Port de Sagunt, was not still finished, so I created an alternative scenic route, in order to simulate the original route, that used to finish at the Port.