Introduction

I would like to introduce you to an indefinite series of overland routes through Spain. In this series, it is my intention to prepare and travel the routes that others have already taken throughout the history of the people and lands of what we now know as Spain. Therefore, my intention is to design, but to travel a series of off-road overland routes, far from asphalt, using history, culture, art, and legends as an excuse.

Throughout this series, I will be choosing historical events or simple legends to prepare overland routes of varying duration in terms of days or kilometers, initially throughout the geography of Spain.

The first route I have chosen is the Ultima Razia of Almanzor in the province of Soria. I will present it to you in a specific blog. I chose this first route for several reasons, the first being that on a frosty winter morning in Calata¤azor, I came across the statue dedicated to Almanzor. On it, you can read the text of the well-known legend about him that reads "In Calata¤azor, Almanzor lost his drum." Memories of history lessons in school came to me.

This experience, on the one hand, fueled my curiosity, and on the other hand, the pandemic, specifically the lockdown, provided me with time to read and search for information, and both together led me to investigate the character. I discovered a little about his life, how he died, the military raids he conducted throughout his life, and how he died far from his home in Cordoba.

On the other hand, my passion for overland off-road travel. We overlanders are always looking for excuses to travel and routes to explore, so I thought we could find the perfect excuse in our history and legends to prepare our overland routes. So, I started preparing this and other possible routes with the navigation programs that I use, which I have presented to you on some occasions.

As I mentioned, these were times of lockdown without the possibility of going on routes or traveling, so the preparation of the routes partly replaced the need to travel, to go out, to hit the mountains and fields.

From all of this came the first route that has gradually become known, and then others that are in preparation. I will continue to design and prepare these routes that I will present to you steadily but without rushing.

Finally, let me tell you how I am preparing these routes. First, the essential thing is to look for the historical excuse, once with a good excuse, start pulling the thread in several phases:

First: Decide on places to visit, the characteristic sites that the route should pass through, at least a first draft. Locate these places on the map, their coordinates (via Google Maps), mark the waypoints in the navigation program. At the same time, research and study each point to be visited to make an initial assessment of whether it is interesting enough to include on the route.

Second: Draw the track on the navigation program. First, search for routes that have already been taken by others via Wikiloc. Download the routes, study them, assess their feasibility, level of difficulty, choose, cut, add points, separate and merge routes to create a track that passes through where it has been decided the route should go. Finally, in this phase, draw the track by hand, without any additional information other than what the map provides, connecting isolated track segments to create a single, complete track, while anticipating alternatives.

Third: Check the feasibility of the track. For me, without a doubt, the most fun and entertaining part. Drive the tracks and alternative routes previously drawn on the computer with a car. Verify the feasibility of the drawn track, record the traveled track, look for new alternatives on the terrain, go back and forth, turn around, move forward and travel, check the percentage of off-road and paved roads, and re-travel, trying to minimize the paved roads as much as possible.

Fourth: Back in the navigation program, draw the final route. With all the recordings of the navigated track, the feasibility of the traveled paths verified, create the real, definitive route. A route that can be guaranteed that, at least at the time it was created, driving on it was viable and possible.

Fifth: Create the YouTube video and blogs, if applicable, and publish the route.

Sixth: Go back and travel it again with friends and adventure companions...

But why do all this, why take all this effort, and for whom? Simply for myself, because I enjoy every phase of it, every reading, every tracing, every trip, and every prepared video, and, why not, to share it with you all, so that together or separately you can enjoy the routes I prepare, knowing that, although your joy may be very great, it will never be comparable to mine in preparing them.

Before the end, I dare to ask you a favor, whenever I have the power to ask you for something. This favor is that you leave me your ideas and suggestions in the comments about routes to prepare, about the places that you might miss in the prepared routes, or any other constructive comment that you consider may be useful for me or for other readers of this blog.

Finally, you may be wondering how often I will be publishing videos, blogs, and routes. Well, as I said, this is a hobby and enjoyment, a pleasure, so there is no set publication schedule other than what pleasure dictates to me. The only work discipline will be what pleasure decides, so that will be the regularity with which I publish. All of this slightly tempered by the fact that I must keep working to finance my passions, so time will rarely be my ally. I hope you do not take it the wrong way, but that is just how it is.