A visit to Spain´s largest natural park – Sierra de Cazorla, Segura y Las Villas in Jaén province over the weekend showed us the extent of the rains we´d experienced this late winter and spring. Storms too had brought down many trees, mostly indigenous pine trees, caused landslides and created the vivid green carpets and spring flowers that greeted us.
The main treat apart from the fabulous food and amazing wilderness was to see the Embalse de Tranco practically at its maximum, creating beautiful and vast visitas..
With a capcity of 506 hm3 it has now 456 hm3 a gigantic increase from our tirip in June 2023, when a massive tideline and dry land where once a tiny island existed was the sad sight. Today land and wildlife thrive again and the views capitvate.
The solar boat glides silently on the water as it has risen to the height of the jetty once again.
Cazorla, Segura and Las Villas Natural Park is also the second largest protected area in Europe an absolute feast for nature lovers, hikers, mountain bikers, photographers etc. with 810.5 sq m of high mountain plains, plunging valleys, tumbling streams and the birth of the most famous river of the south, the Rio Guadalquivir which flows west for 408 miles through the cities of Cordoba and Seville out into the Atlantic Ocean on the coast of Cadiz.
Yet another corner of the interior of Andalucia well away from the coast and its hustle and bustle.
