Unexpected Game of Thrones Encounters in Navarre

Castildetierra in Bardenas Reales Nature Park, Navarra, Spain, where some episodes of Game of Thrones were shot. Photo / Getty Images

Sally Blyth has a tale of royalty and thrones — and a one-of-a-kind desert that exceeds expectations.

Our road trip took us to the small Spanish town of Olite in Navarre, half an hour south of Pamplona. During the Middle Ages this was the seat of the Royal Court of the kingdom, and the town's feature-piece is the enormous Royal Palace. It's a rather ordinary name for an utterly extraordinary structure which, while stripped of the grandeur of its heyday, still retained its fairy-tale characteristics. A bit like being caught up inside a giant Esher drawing, it was truly magnificent.

The facade of our boutique hotel in Olite was very old, yet behind it was an elegant, modern establishment. Our spacious room had a small balcony overlooking a narrow, cobbled lane that whispered of a time long ago. As dusk approached, we walked up to the square for dinner, but it was strangely deserted and all the restaurants closed. We discovered the town's big annual festival had just wrapped up and, after a week of fiestas, music and merriment, the locals were having a well-earned night off. Slightly disappointing but fair enough. We returned to dine at the hotel as a perfectly appealing alternative.

I spotted a group of people in the hotel lobby, about to head out of the door. They were young, good-looking, exotic, exuberant and speaking in all sorts of accents. I was puzzled — they seemed oddly out of place, yet like they absolutely belonged. I suggested to my husband that perhaps they were models on a photo shoot in the area. We took a seat in the restaurant, ordered wine and studied the menu.

A short time later, the group were back after a similarly fruitless quest for a night on the town. A table was set up for them in the restaurant and, as their chatter escalated, I noticed one of the accents was most definitely Kiwi. I went over, said "hi" and got chatting. It was Joe Naufahu and it turned out these people were not models, but Game of Thrones actors, who were staying in the hotel, along with their language coach, and would be filming in the nearby Bardenas Reales national park over the next few days.

It so happened that our planned destination for the following day was the Bardenas Reales, a desert area we had picked out as an intriguing place to visit. It seemed the GoT production team thought so too — it was to become the Dothraki Sea. I have to admit to neither being a GoT-watcher nor very familiar with the story or characters at that point but, all the same, was fascinated by stumbling across some of the cast in this tiny town while the rest of the world speculated. Joe played Khal Moro and we made a mental note to tune in for the episodes that would feature these guys romping around in the same Spanish desert as us, at the same time.

Our meal was excellent, as was the service and local wine. Olite is a wine capital in the area, with a beautiful wine museum and underground bodega (winery/cellar) in the square. The town sits somewhat under the radar, but we had already fallen for its charms, without even having seen most of them, and the actors seemed to be enjoying it as much as we are.

Next morning, we found a lively cafeé for breakfast before hitting the road to the desert; it was only about 20 minutes' drive, past acres of wind farms and solar panels, to the middle of nowhere. Normally the entire place can be explored by car but we were advised by the parks people that some parts were blocked off for filming. This we already knew!

The landscape was incredible no matter which way we looked. As we drove towards a big craggy tower of rock for a closer view of the colours and patterns, we could see the film set in the distance; trucks, trailers, tents and lots of activity. There appeared to be plenty of horses as well. What a mission to get all of that into this vast and barren place.

The plates of rock were layered in different hues of gold, red and cream, with deep gulches carved by the passing of time and the doings of nature. Tufts of low bushy growth sprouted here and there along the deep crevasses, pushing their way up through the cracked ground. In subtle tones of sage and olive-green, under moody clouds and a ribbon of blue sky on the horizon, they completed a soothing colour palette of nature. Small snakes called this home, as my husband discovered when he took a much-needed pee on a small bush. I'm not sure who gets the biggest fright, him or the poor wet snake that slithered quickly away.

Underfoot, it was chalky. Silky smooth like the lightest mineral powder, the dust was that gorgeous slightly honey-colour of Cornish clotted cream and got into everything.

The roadways were narrow, stretching as far as the eye could see. We drove to all corners, marvelling at the formations - quite different from one part to the next. Giant twisted pinnacles soared like towers of bottled sand; triangular pyramid-like structures rose up as if stacked by hand; hills extended to the horizon, their tops sliced flat like table mountains. Golden eagles swooped overhead. Or were they Egyptian vultures? A strong wind blew warmly.

We stopped often to take photos. Occasionally we passed a car coming the other way but mostly, true to its name, the place was deserted. Small haciendas appeared every now and then, empty and neglected, picturesque in a forlorn way. There were a few working farms with stock. We drove past a military base from where they carried out bombing practice; it all looked very mysterious.

As we drove around, we saw the film set from various angles and felt fortunate to be among a handful of people on the planet privy to this highly secretive GoT location. Fans would give their eye teeth for this.

Hungry, we stopped in the nearby town of Aguerdo for a bite to eat; the fried green pimientos, a Basque specialty, were exceptional. There is barely anyone around and the town itself felt like a film set. I found an impossibly photogenic street, and had a wonderful time taking photos of doors and windows and peeling facades until my husband could stand it no more and hurried me along.

Back in Olite, we whiled away more happy hours visiting the wine museum and underground Medieval Gallery. Soon after we arrived back at the hotel, the actors returned euphoric and exhausted. It was rehearsal day, they told us, tomorrow they filmed for real. They couldn't say too much but were eager to share tales of the antics they got up to, including getting to grips with riding the horses.

We all agreed Olite was delightful and the desert spectacular. The actors would be heading back there athe next day; we would be walking across the square to explore the stunning Royal Palace.

Postscript Notes: We stayed at the Hotel La Joyosa Guarda in Olite, a town with a lot to offer. The Royal Palace is every bit as impressive and fascinating as we imagined. Once home, we watched the GoT Season 6 "desert" episodes (1 & 6) with happy memories of a special place, a large dose of insider knowledge and big grins on our faces.