Sunday in the Bardenas Reales: a desert by 4x4 and Ribera vegetables.

The Bardenas Reales are a desert of clay, gypsum and sandstone in southern Navarre: hills, dry ravines and plateaux cut like a knife. The part that appears in all the photos is the Bardena Blanca, with Castildetierra, the funnel-shaped hill that has become its symbol. This Sunday you tour it by 4x4 with a guide who knows the tracks and what they mean, and then you eat in Tudela, the capital of the Ribera, the land of vegetables.

The day, hour by hour

8:30 · Set off. From Pamplona, take the AP-15 towards Tudela and the Arguedas exit: a little over an hour. From Zaragoza, on the AP-68 or the A-68 and Tudela. From Logroño, on the AP-68 and Tudela. Meet the company wherever they tell you when you book; Enjoy Bardenas picks up within 25 km.

9:45 · The Bardena Blanca by 4x4. A private three-hour route with an official guide in a seven-seat air-conditioned off-road vehicle: Castildetierra, the Pisquerra and El Rallón, with stops to walk and take photos. It costs from €160 per vehicle for up to four people, €10 more per person up to six, with a drink and insurance. Book on their website.

12:45 · Cortinas ravine. If the route does not include it, it is a flat walk of a little over a kilometre along a ravine beside Castildetierra: half an hour.

14:00 · Lunch at Restaurante 33. In Tudela, about twenty minutes away. It is a restaurant devoted to Ribera vegetables: pochas with quail, borage, Tudela tomato, cristal peppers and shoulder of suckling lamb. It serves lunch every day from 13:15 to 16:15, Sunday included. Book.

16:30 · Tudela. Plaza de los Fueros, with its bandstand, the Jewish quarter and the cathedral of Santa María from outside, with the Puerta del Juicio. The Museo de Tudela, through which you enter the cathedral, is closed on Sundays: if you want to see it inside, do the plan on a Saturday.

18:00 · Head home. In Pamplona around a quarter past seven; in Zaragoza, a little earlier.

On your own, without a guide

If you prefer to go on your own, the track of about 25 km around the Bardena Blanca can be driven in an ordinary car, driven slowly, in about two hours with stops. It starts at the Los Aguilares information centre, about 7 km from Arguedas, open every day from 9:00 to 14:00 and from 15:00 to 17:00 at this time of year. The park opens at 8:00 and closes an hour before nightfall. The maximum speed is 40 km/h, you may not leave the track or stop outside the lay-bys, and you may not enter the central firing range. Inside there is no water, bars or petrol stations.

With children, teenagers and a dog

With small children, the 4x4 keeps them entertained, and the Cortinas ravine is short. With teenagers, Bardenas Buggies Tour lets you drive a four-seat buggy behind the guide, from €230 per buggy. The dog can go on the tracks, on a lead of three metres at most; it may not enter the information centre.