Mini Hollywood, officially Oasys, is a Wild West town that happens to be in southern Spain, and it makes a better stop than a cynic might expect. The reason is the land. Around Tabernas, in the province of Almería, the hills are bare, cracked and rust-coloured, rainfall is among the lowest in Europe, and filmmakers realised in the 1960s that the place looked enough like Arizona and Mexico to pass. Sergio Leone shot much of the spaghetti western A Fistful of Dollars out here, and later productions, including an Indiana Jones film, borrowed the same badlands.
The sets that survive have become a theme park of sorts, with wooden saloons, a bank, a gallows, and staged shoot-outs for visitors. It is cheerful, a bit cheesy, and unabashedly proud. If you can ignore the actors in their stetsons, the backdrop of eroded ravines and agave is the real draw. The film industry also left behind a local economy: other former sets nearby offer similar attractions, and the town of Tabernas sells itself as a capital of cinema.
Riding through the desert is a different experience from anywhere else in Spain. Roads such as the A-92 and the old N-340a cross a landscape of dry rambla riverbeds, dusty scrub, and long straights broken by gentle sweeps. The light is hard, the shadows sharp, and in midsummer the heat is considerable, with temperatures that make the engine and the rider equally unhappy at midday. Spring and autumn are the best seasons, and early morning gives the best light for photographs. After rain, which is rare but sometimes violent, dry channels can flood, so do not ride into a flooded dip.
The surrounding area, the Tabernas Desert, is generally described as semi-arid rather than a true desert, but it looks plenty desert enough. Plants like esparto grass and wild thyme cling on, and lizards bask on the stones. Not far away, near Tabernas, the Plataforma Solar de Almería uses the reliable sunshine for solar-energy research, a rather logical use for the land.
Fuel is easy in Tabernas, about five kilometres away, and the larger towns of Huércal de Almería and Almería city lie to the south. There is shade and cold drink at the park, but bring a hat and water of your own if you plan to explore on foot.