Van Life in Europe’s Only Desert

There's a place hidden in the heart of southern Spain where time seems to slow down completely. The Tabernas Desert, Europe's only true desert, is a land carved by extremes. Towering mountains rise from the earth, stretching to the horizon in a maze of sun-baked ravines and weathered peaks, sculpted by centuries of wind and heat. It's a land of contradictions, harsh and dry, yet dotted with pine trees clinging to the slopes, thriving against the odds. The land is unforgiving, yet alive in its own quiet way. If you're new here, hi, I'm Jessica, and I live in my wooden campervan Goldbone with my partner Rissi and our adventure puppy Heidi. A year ago we decided to leave our old lives behind and poured all of our savings into a Since then we've been living nomadically, seeking a simple and cheap life in nature. For a year now we've been travelling around Europe in the slow lane to reconnect with nature and grow roots in the wild. The most magical thing about the Tabernas is its silence. There are no human sounds, no constant hum of traffic, just the occasional call of a bird and the ever-present howling of the wind. It's a solitude that's all-encompassing and strangely peaceful at the same time. Out here we are completely alone. Good morning, we are now in the Tabernas Desert, which is Europe's only true desert, I believe. Allegedly. I think I heard that somewhere, it's probably true. Yeah, I mean there's quite a few desert areas in Spain, aren't there, but I think it's measured in terms of annual rainfall. So we were here last year and we really fell in love with this place, it's just so quiet and the mountain views are just so incredible and there are actually quite a lot of trees here in the desert and especially because it's been raining so hard in the last week, it's a lot greener than it was last year. So it looks very cool having like this vast desert landscape with greenery in between and the snow-capped mountains in the distance. Yeah, is that like the tallest mountain that we'd see over there or is that just like the same range or something? I think it's the same range, it might be Sierra Nevada. Yeah. It looks a bit like Rohan, doesn't it? Yeah, it does. A bit less grassy. A bit less grassy, yeah, but you've got like the kind of desert landscape and the snow-capped mountains. So yeah, it's really lovely here, we really wanted to come back and show you this place. Heidi is absolutely loving the sun. As you can see, she's just lying on the windowsill and she can't wait to explore. And our electric system is loving it as well. We're getting so much solar, it's actually incredible. We're at 82% now, we're getting almost 300 watts and we've just been consistently above 80%, although we've barely been driving. So I think this is probably the best place in Europe for solar. It is windy here and sunny and windy together is really good for solar. So it's been an absolute dream, we could easily stay here for weeks and not run out of energy, which is pretty cool. And I think today we are going to do a hike that we did last year as well. It kind of goes next to a ravine and then down into a valley and it's really, really beautiful. It is quite windy, but once you get into the valley, it's just completely still and it's really gorgeous. Last time we were here, we didn't have Heidi yet, so I think she would enjoy this place. We do need to be a bit careful because apparently there's tarantulas here, black widow spiders, scorpions, probably snakes as well. Yeah, you said you can find info on snakes, but there's no way there's not snakes here. Yeah, there's snakes in other parts of Spain. Surely they found their way here. Yeah, so we need to be careful with keeping Heidi on the trail. So we're going to keep her on the lead just in case, but I'm sure she'll have a great time regardless. It is Heidi's birthday. Heidi is one year old now and we've had her for six months. I would quite like to bake a cake for her, like a vegan birthday dog cake. Do you want a cake? Yes. Do you want a cake? We've got peanut butter. We've got bananas. We've got flour. We've got unsweetened oat milk. We've got some vegan yogurt that doesn't really have added sugars. So I might bake a little cake for Heidi today. How do you feel about that? Yes? Happy birthday. Happy birthday, my love. Absolutely spoiled rotten. Yeah. So the weather in this place has been really volatile. This morning it was really nice and sunny with a bit of a breeze. And now it's clouded over and it's so windy. We actually can't have any of the doors open because we don't want to damage the van. And this evening was supposed to have heavy rain in the desert and high winds. We actually got a wind warning, but luckily the spot where we're parked is very safe. The ground is quite reinforced, so we're most likely going to be fine here. Banana, peanut butter. Oh, this is so heavy. And we've got fresh Spanish strawberries. Oh god, I just dropped one on the bed. Let's try this. Tastes like banana bread. It's quite nice. I'm almost a bit scared to cut it. It's so pretty, I don't want to cut it. What do you think about this cake, Heidi? I think she knows she's not supposed to eat our food. And maybe it's a little bit too much like our food. Heidi, is it your birthday? Oh, she's licking it. Do you like your birthday cake? Oh, I think she does. Oh, you want more? Do you want more cake? The human history of the Tabernas Desert goes back millennia, and many legends were passed on over time. There are countless stories of bandits and outlaws, but locals also tell of hermits and healers who once lived on the edge of the desert. One story speaks of a wise old woman in the 1800s who dwelled in a cave near Tabernas and had the power to find water by intuition, which was a precious skill in this arid land. That woman was said to place a blessed twig on the ground and it would stand upright only where water flowed beneath. And other stories claim that she could sense water by placing her hands on the ground and listening to the breath of the earth. Local farmers and shepherds sought her out whenever the wells dried up or when they needed to dig new ones. She would walk slowly over the land, pausing at certain spots before marking them as places where water could be found. Many claimed that the wells dug where she indicated never dried up. Some believed her gift was divine, while others whispered that she had made a pact with ancient spirits of the desert. Some locals accused her of witchcraft, though for the most part she was highly respected by her community. One day, the wise woman set off into the desert alone and was never seen again. Some claim that she merged with the land, meaning that the desert took her back and her resting place became a secret spring that only the worthy could find. We are back at the van and Rizzi is making a cup of tea for us and then I think we're gonna watch an episode of Alone which we started the other day. We're a bit hooked on it at the moment. I think we're on season, what are we on? Season seven out of how many? 10 or 11. Oh, we've got quite a bit ahead of us. That's exciting. But yeah, we watched them in the space of a month or two on this trip. We're really hooked on it, it's so much fun. Yeah, and then I guess we're gonna have a pretty indoorsy evening since the wind has picked up quite a bit. It's really windy. So it's not so much fun being outside anymore. Thank you. Rizzi is pretending to be the mouth of Sauron. Rizzi, can you come down here? Come on. Good morning. We had some very stormy rainy days here in the desert and we feel like it's probably time to leave. Yeah, I think it's pretty chill here. We were here for a while last time but the civil guard did give us a fairly long look when they were driving past. So the plan for today is to drive deeper into the desert and do one of the kind of most popular hikes here. We're actually gonna park right next to that mini Hollywood place where a lot of Wild West films were filmed. We're not gonna go to the theme park because we're just not bothered. And it's quite expensive so we're just gonna do the hike and enjoy the scenery. And after that, we want to make our way to the beach because it's spring equinox soon and we know a beach in the area which has a little hippie temple and it just seems like a very fitting place to spend the equinox. So hopefully it's not too flooded but we'll see. The whole Tabernas area is rich in everyday folklore which has been passed down through generations. One iconic symbol of the local folk culture is the Indalo, a prehistoric cave painting of a stick figure man holding an arch over his head which was discovered in a cave nearby. The Indalo figure has been adopted as a good luck charm and protector against evil eyes and storms. And for centuries, locals used to paint the Indalo on their homes to ward off misfortune. There are lots of abandoned farmhouses and mine shafts scattered across Tabernas. Locals sometimes tell stories about hidden miners fortunes or even use them to scare children saying that goblins will get them if they wander around the mines. People say that the desert remembers its former inhabitants and an old wives tale claims that on certain hot afternoons if you put your ears to the ground you can hear a faint clinking sound which is supposedly the echo of coins buried and lost in the sand. 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