Rio Tinto the real McCoy

The Rio Tinto Landscape.

It was intriguing to learn that Rio Tinto is a river about 60kms from where we have been domiciled for the last fortnight here in Spain. I did know RT was a world wide

A Wasteland.

mining company of  significant size and also had a not so shiny reputation, as many other mining operations, mining in general being a dirty industry best carried out in some one else's backyard, if possible or at best in less populated areas of 3rd world countries.
So with a little more research we discovered this company was formed by a British partnership, later with the Rothschilds taking full control in the late 1800s. Spain was mining for copper from this area, as had all comers over the last 5000 years (a section in the museum on

No Paddling Please.

the Romans & mining). It is hugely rich in minerals, to the extent that the RT river has always run orange, is highly toxic and populated only with "extremophile anaerobic bacteria". The subsurface rocks on the river bed contain iron and sulfide minerals on which the bacteria feed.

Still Beautiful.

Interestingly NASA run a lab in the area trying to determine what similar lifeforms may have existed on Mars, similar in geology to this area
Only a mining Company that had poisoned thousands of people, made villages uninhabitable, left mountains of toxic waste through out many countries, etc. would have the gall to then turn around and make a tourist attraction of said poisoned land.
And indeed they haven't, but a local trust has, as a monument to what I don't know, but it is a testimony to how to get things wrong, albeit dating back to a time when it

Rusting Hulks.A train enthusiasts dream.

didn't matter so much. As pointed out in the English blurb to accompany the train ride through the old tailing's, is the quote " from an ecological point of view this area is totally unrecoverable" and its no surprise as you travel on the train..... this is the most poisonous environment we've seen, like the worst areas of Rotorua's Hells Gate, kms of sulphurous stinking coloured wasteland, a salutary lesson on mans ability to shite in his own nest, still though a sight to behold, for whatever reason. The train trip on the restored  tracks was accompanied  by the  loudest sound  system imaginable and even with tissues

Notice the Haze!

wedged into my ears was  soooooo loud. In Spanish of course but an informative English translation was given to read.  The museum was really well set out but was a huge disappointment as there was virtually no English, just lots of great exhibits, photos and models but hardly a skerrick of English, some have said a way of getting back at the English for munting the country, or perhaps it may be too scathing of the English owners practises, point taken perhaps....!!!!Watch for my review on "Trip Advisor" which incidentally is a helpful resource..

NASA think this may be like Mars was.

We came away from there both suffering dull headaches possibly from the sulphurous heaps of ore, or more likely dehydration, in a confused frame of mind re

Giant Collapsing Slag Mountains.

whether this quest for minerals was worth the pillage of our earth, but also cognisant of the fact that this dirty industry supports the world in its present guise!!!!
Another strange phenomena we witnessed over that day and to a lesser extent the previous day was a light brown haze at times limiting vision to little over a km and at best 5kms, largely ignored, the people we asked simply referred to it as clouds!!  It turned to be dust haze out of north Africa, the Saharan Desert. It cleared by day 3 leaving a very fine dust on everything ,not gritty, and not causing any particular difficulties for the population that we could determine. We were the only ones that seemed to notice it.

Isla Chrisina. Delightful.

We trundled on to Portugal via a beach resort called Isla Christina, a new town with little history but lovely beaches and only a few tourists wintering over from Northern Europe and UK. Lots of Germans & Dutch. As our Swedish neighbour pointed out if there are Dutch staying, it must be a good deal!