Extremadura road trip: Garganta de los Infiernos & Plasencia

Our first outdoor activity of the holiday took us to Garganta de los Infiernos (‘throats of hell’). On the maps it’s not far away from the bungalows in hervas. In reality, they are located in the next valley, the jerte valley, and require a good hour worth of driving over the hills on narrow serpentine roads. There is a visitor center where you can leave the car and pick a route to your liking.

We arrived around midday and had packed lunch and plenty of water with us. Alex seemingly felt strong when he picked the 16km circular route. He changed his mind quickly though and we ended up hiking to a place called los pilones – a bunch of natural pools formed as the river carved its way through the stone. Beautiful to see and plenty of animals and plants to discuss given there were frequent info boards. Instead of 16km it turned out to be just under 6km. Still a great achievement for my little hiker given 27degress and pure sunshine all the way.

Alex usually doesn’t cope too well with windy roads and already on the way in we had to stop as he felt a little uncomfortable. Hence I picked our return route around the hills and through Plasencia, one of the larger cities in Extremadura. Yet again we were blown away by the beautiful old town (a result of the city’s position along the historic silver route or ruta de la plata). Pictures speak for themselves. We had a little walk around, rested over a tasty ice cream and went shopping before we headed home. No problems sleeping that night ;o)