BIRDS, BIRDS AND 5000 YEARS OF HISTORY

On our way out of Seville we took a slight detour and visited the Roman remains called Italica at Santiponce.  This large site was once an important Roman town and although there is little more than low walls showing where the buildings were there are several well preserved mosaics.

The most impressive structure still surviving is the amphitheatre – once the third largest in the Roman Empire.  Though it has crumbled away in places, the tiers of seats, rooms for the Gladiators and the wild animals, the arena and many passageways are all still visible and accessible.  Even after 2000 years you can still almost hear the shouting of an excited crowd!

We ended up staying at El Rocio for eight days.  The town is like something from a Western film with the roads all covered with several inches of loose sand.  Many riders from around the area often congregate here with their horses at weekends, creating quite a spectacle.

Having visited briefly two years ago we knew what to expect and only cycled down the (tarmac) by-pass and along the lovely paved promenade by the lake.  The main attraction of the area is the Doñana National Park – a huge wetland area set among pine forest and scrub – which attracts huge numbers of migratory birds including flamingos. 

There are pleasant walks and several hides just a short cycle ride from the campsite. We made good use of them and I won’t bore you by listing all the different birds we saw or posting all the photos but I was rather pleased to “capture” a stork taking off with a mouthful of nesting material.

While staying at El Rocio we drove to nearby Niebla which, surprisingly, is not in the guide books but has substantial, well preserved walls round the old town. This was the first place in Europe that gun powder was used for military purposes.

Leaving El Rocio we began our unhurried northward journey with several places that we wanted to see on the way.  After a couple of nights wild camping we came to Riotinto where the mining company of the same name was established and run by the British from the mid nineteenth century till it closed down about twenty years ago.  Minerals containing such things as copper, silver, iron and even mercury have been mined in this area for about 5000 years.  The more recent mining was all open cast and has left huge craters with a strange sort of beauty.

The name Riotinto comes from the Rio Tinto river whose source is in amongst the mines and whose water really is red because of the dissolved minerals.

The mining museum was very interesting with a reconstruction of a Roman mine and numerous displays including a luxurious narrow gauge railway coach built for Queen Victoria.  There was also the mine manager’s house built in a very English style and furnished as it would have been early in the last century.

We stayed three nights near Aracena and were able to go for some lovely walks in the surrounding National Park. This is a largely unspoilt part of Spain with white villages and small towns scattered among the wooded hills.  This is Almonaster la Real .

The next town on our route was Mérida with more Roman remains than any other town in Spain.  Among them is the Temple of Diana which served not only as a place of worship but as the judicial and administrative centre of the area.  It has subsequently had many uses including having a palace built among the columns.  This actually preserved them very well!

We spent a night on the very popular aire a short distance away at Cáceres of which the guide book was fairly dismissive but which we found to have a pleasant unspoilt walled old town.  Unusually the Cathedral has an elaborate reredos behind the altar made entirely from wood without any gold or silver ornamentation.

Not far away are the remains of a very impressive Roman bridge.

We then went to an excellent campsite on the edge of the Monfragüe National Park.  From there we have been able to drive and walk into the park and see Griffon Vultures like this one,

also Black Vultures, Egyptian Vultures, Eagle Owl, Black Stork, Azure Winged Magpies and Serin to name but a few.

Returning to the site we had an unexpected visitor!

INTO THE MOUNTAINS

We left the coast and headed inland to Antequera – a small town about which we knew nothing other than that it was in the hills about 50 km north of Malaga.  It turned out to be quite delightful.  The old town has survived largely unspoilt and is still an ordinary residential area.  Some of the old walls and castle have been carefully restored.

There are numerous churches of varied design but among the most interesting sights are the dolmens.  The largest of these tombs from the megalithic era is the Menga, built of enormous flat boulders the roof section being supported by three columns.

Unusually the passage into the tomb faces northeast – directly in line with a mountain which looks like the face of somebody lying on his back!

We drove a few kilometres beyond Antequera and took the opportunity to climb the 3½ km from the main road up to El Torcal de Antequera – an amazing area of glaciated limestone formations mostly resembling stacks of gigantic pancakes.  This is a very popular climbing area with lots of bolted routes - though special permission is required to climb there.

We then went to a site at one end of the Garganta del Chorro – a 5 km long, incredibly narrow and deep cleft in the rock and a favourite destination for some serious climbing (above our standard even if we had the equipment with us!)  As part of an ambitious hydro-electric scheme early in the 20^th century a precarious walkway was built, clinging to the side of the gorge.  Now in disrepair it is only accessible to climbers with local guides. 

We cycled from the site to the nearer end and then drove and walked to the far end.

A short day’s drive along some very narrow roads brought us to the town of Cabra where we stayed a night on the aire (free overnight parking for motor caravans).  From the aire we had a very enjoyable cycle ride along a disused railway line, now very popular with walkers and cyclists.

It was then only a short distance to Cordoba – one time capital of the Moorish area of Spain.  The term “Moor” refers to a mixture of Berber and Arabic peoples from North Africa, especially present day Morocco.  The area they ruled was named “al Andalus” from which Andalucia got its name.  We enjoyed a day visit (by bus from the camp site about 20 km away) to the town where we saw its most important and extraordinary building – the Mezquita (Spanish for Mosque). 

There was a Christian church on this site from the 6^th century which was demolished by the Muslim Moors in 785 and a huge mosque built on the site.  The mosque was added to over the following centuries until its area was quite enormous.  Following the re-conquest of Spain in 1236 and the expulsion of the Moors, a Cathedral was built inside the Mosque, fortunately not destroying the beautiful Muslim architecture and decoration but blending the two together.  The result is fascinating and spectacular.

Our next port of call, now an inland city on the Guadalquivir River – Seville – was once the major port of departure for the Americas and Far East until the river silted up and everything nautical moved to Cadiz.  Because of its importance at a time when Spain’s exploration of, and trade with, the rest of the world was at a height there is an abundance of palaces and grand buildings set among wide roads and parks.  However, one of the most spectacular was built for the ill-fated Spanish-American Exhibition in 1929 – the Plaza de España – now used for little other than a place to while away a sunny afternoon.

Seville also has a very large and ornate Cathedral.

It, too, was built on the site of a mosque of which little remains other than the minaret, now the bell tower, the Giralda named after the 16^th century weather vane on its pinnacle.  From it there are fine views over the city.

The near-by tobacco factory, now part of the university – was the setting for Bizet’s opera “Carmen”.

This was our second visit to Seville and there is much to see so we may well return again on another trip.  But for now our plans are to go to another town where we stayed for a couple of nights two years ago – El Rocio and the Parque Nacional de Doñana which we didn’t see last time.