March 9, 2012
TURN right off the main north road just out of El Rocio and you’re on a
camino agricolo, driving through acres of strawberry plants in polytunnels,
interspersed with orange groves.
More right turns at Pilas and Aznalcazar, and it’s a different world.
You’re into 11km of lovely wooded countryside, the road lined with tall stone
pines, with plenty of shady picnic spots, opening up into an area of sandy
heathland that reminded me of the New Forest ,
only without the animals.
The only drawback was the presence of rumble strips and speed bumps
every few hundred yards, which slowed our progress towards the Isla Mayor
marshes so much that we ran short of time there with the evening closing in.
I’ve mentioned before that it’s been a very dry winter here, and it’s
going to cause problems for wildlife – as our Donana tour driver put it, only
the strongest will survive.
There was precious little water in the marshes, and the rice paddies at
this time of year are just vast tracts of parched, cracked earth. We did,
however, manage to see a great white egret and – a life tick for a very happy David
– a night heron, as well as spoonbill and hen harrier.
We drove back marvelling at one of the most beautiful sunsets I’ve ever
seen. The whole horizon was awash with deep reds, pinks, golds and yellows. My
camera couldn’t do it justice.
We stopped to photograph a line of trees silhouetted against this
amazing sky and found ourselves alongside a field of goats, munching
peacefully, with no other sound to be heard but the bells tinkling round their
necks and the screech of an owl.
As we arrived back at the camp site a full moon like a Seville orange
was rising.
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