A refreshing trip through the mountains

I am just back from a two-day trip in Madrid. After this experience, I have realized that I really prefer traveling around the countryside, being in touch with the environment, to visiting overcrowded places. Specially now, when the Christmas time is approaching, and everybody decides to go shopping simultaneously.

The second blog entry corresponds to a trip that I took last summer. We spent a few days in Sierra Grazalema in Cadiz. We arrived in Grazalema in early August. This year the weather was specially hot by that time. Although we were in the mountains above 1,000 meters over the sea level, the temperature was quite warm to do outdoors activities. Our initial idea was to go trekking through the mountains. After talking to the hotel receptionist, she recommended us changing our plans. She suggested taking a trip from El Bosque to Benamahoma following the course of a river. The river was in a valley between two mountains. The path that we had to follow along the riverside was almost fully covered by vegetation and trees during all the course. Thus, it was a good plan for that torrid day.

We started our trip about 6pm. The path was fully covered by trees and vegetation as promised. It was pleasant to walk following the river. Although that it was difficult for us to reach the starting point, we found there plenty of tourists. Some of them were French. I do always wonder how foreigners manage to get to such places or who recommended them to go trekking there. 

Once we started our trip, we found plenty of small waterfalls in the river. It was still hot, so I did not want to miss the opportunity of taking a bath. The bottom of the river was covered by stones with mug. We decided to not remove our shoes to avoid having problems with the stones and our feet. After selecting a nice waterfall to swim around, I jumped in the water. It was really cold, but refreshing. I managed to swim against the current flow and reach the exact point where the waterfall water was falling into the river. I have never gone to a spa before. However, I think that our experience should be something similar or even better. The waterfall has two meters high. Although It does not sound spectacular, the water pressure on my body was high. After a few minutes being there, it started to hurt my skin.

During our trip, we found a lot of people along the river. We swam in different places and we came back about 10pm. It was a very nice experience that I can really recommend. During our way back, we crossed a town that was celebrating its local fair. Despite not wearing suitable clothes for the event, we stopped there to see what was going on. We had the opportunity of trying their local dishes that were delicious and original. I ate wild boar and deer meat.

Finally, we reached our hotel late in the late evening. It was undoubtedly a good starting point for our holidays. Maybe, that unexpected plan was the best activity that we did during the last summer.

Trekking from Matalascañas to Cádiz

The aim of this blog is to tell you fruitful experiences traveling around Andalusia. I hope you can enjoy reading it and, at some point, follow my steps and exchange experiences with me and the blog followers.

The first trip that I am going to report was a long walk though the beaches of the Doñana National Park. As you may know, the Doñana National Park is one of the largest of Europe. It is located between the provinces of Huelva, Sevilla, and Cadiz. It has a huge variety of different landscapes, flora and fauna. Part of the park, is the unexploited beach between Matalascañas and Sanlucar de Barrameda (in Cadiz). It is one of the most beatiful beaches that I have ever seen. It is only accessible on foot or by bike, starting from any of these towns. In the middle, it is surrounded by the Doñana Park that is restricted to visitors.

We started our trip from Matalascañas a bit late; about 4pm in the afternoon. It was summertime and we overlooked the real distance between Matalacañas and Sanlucar (60km, both ways). The tide was low that day. I was perfect for walking. The weather was windy and chilly for that season of the year.
During the few first kilometers we found a lot of fishermen shelters on the beach. They use them to live there during some periods of the year. We also spotted some people swimming and sunbathing far away of the civilitation.

After walking eight kilometers, we decided to stop to see a big tower next to the see. It was used centuries ago to suvey our coast and detect invasors coming from the sea. We took a few photos, we had a snack, and before continuing our trip, we walked a bit up to the North to see the heart of the National Park. At the beginning the landscape was made up of dunes. It was fan to roll down from the their to. Afterwards, the landscape started to change slowly. We found a small forest in between two dunes. We visited it and we found a fox. I did have time to take a picture of it, but we will never forget it. After 30 minutes exploring the park, we came back to the beach and we headed to Sanlucar again.

The views were stunning and we were really enjoying our trip. We took a bath and a lot of pictures. Unfortunately, after 15 kilometers walking one way, the sun started to set, and we decided to come back. I was puzzled about a such decision. I really wanted to complete our trip. However, I have to admit that it was a right decision. In the way back, we started to feel very tired, the weather was colder, and it was difficult to see and enjoy the trip in the dark. Finally, we arrived home at 1:30am in the night. It was a bit crazy adventure, but we do want to repeat it. Next time, we would like to start in the morning, and spend the night in Sanlucar. We will wait for the next Summer.