What to do in Navarra

Navarre packs three landscapes into 10,000 km² that elsewhere would be separated by hundreds of kilometres: the Pyrenees in the north, the arid Bardenas in the south and the Irati forest in the centre. The Navarrese Pyrenean massif includes the Roncesvalles pass—the historic gateway of the Camino de Santiago—and the most demanding stretch of the GR-11, the Pyrenean traverse linking the Mediterranean with the Atlantic. The Foz de Arbayún canyon has 260 m walls above the Salazar river and is one of the straightest limestone gorges on the Peninsula; the descent is done with rope or by following the rim trail with views over the void. The Irati forest, on the border with France, is the largest beech-fir forest in western Europe: 17,000 ha where in autumn light filtered through the beeches stains the ground ochre for weeks. Mushrooms—porcini, chanterelles, saffron milk caps—turn October into a serious pursuit for those who know the sectors, and several local guides offer harvesting days with identification and cooking included. The Bardenas Reales, a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, offer the opposite landscape: clay and gypsum eroded into towers and hollows that look like they belong in the American desert. The network of dirt tracks allows you to explore them by mountain or gravel bike on routes of 40 to 80 km, and the weekday silence turns the pedalling into an experience of almost meditative focus.