Ojos Negros Greenway Part 2 (Refugio del Balsete to Puerto de Escandón)

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

Despite the cloudy and windy weather, a nice downhill was waiting for me back down to the valley, in order to start the day.

Once I got back to the greenway, it would be a continously downhill motion untill Teruel, flanked by agricultural fields and live stock farms.

Around 10km´s after getting back to the greenway, quick diversion to the small village of Cella, to get provisions. Of course, it was holiday xD

After the diversion point, few km´s down the greenway, a furniture factory can be found, right before the Narrow gauge Cella train station.

After that, we could spot far in the distance, Teruel´s warehouse airport. It´s one of the few on the planet, simillar (but smaller) to the one located at USA Mojave´s desert. Due to the dry environment, it´s ideal for long term Aircraft storage.

Finally time to arrive to "Teruel train station". In quotes, because as this is a freight only railway, it is located way far from city center. I had to peddal around 15 km return journey to city center, where I did a quick visit and also got provisions (finally :D).

After Teruel, the biggest climbing of this Greenway for the ones who peddal it Ojos Negros Sagunt way. Despite that, it was a gradual and easy climbing, surrounded by reddish martian montains, some nice stone bridges, and green woods, untill I reached the highest point of this Ojos Negros railway, at Puerto de Escandón train station (1.220,5 m). At this point, it is literally locate side by side with the Iberian Gauge railway. As a matter of fact, it is also the highest point of the Iberian Gauge Calatayud (now Zaragoza) Sagunt railway.

Once reached this station, I left the greenway and searched for an higher spot up in the woods, for camping.

It was perhaps one of the parts I enjoyed more on the whole route, despite the uphill. Really nice landscapes in this area, and also full of history, the sad spanish civil war played in this region an important chapter.

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

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.