| We will pick you up from your
hotel in the area. First stop will be at La Madre, the Mother of the
Marshes, just next to the traditional village of El Rocío. It is always
interesting to check along the edge of the marshes for aquatic birds,
raptors and mammals. This is one of the most beautiful sceneries in
Doñana and it is just there to enjoy it. |
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| We'll enter the National Park
after crossing the Ajolí Bridge. Then we shall drive along the sandy track
called Raya Real, the most famous traditional pilgrim route to El
Rocío. The Pine wood you will be taken through is one of the best Lynx
spots in Doñana. If you are lucky enough you might even see one of them
walking slowly away from us or just seating still looking at you next to
a Mastic Tree. The Cork Oak dehesa to the right was thought for grassing
cattle but it is also a very good ground for the Fallow and Reed Deer. |
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| After a few kilometres we´ll turn south and cross over to the restricted fenced area. This fence goes
all along the northern and eastern sides of the park, it was built to
keep people away and cattle inside. It makes specially sense along this,
at times, very busy road. Soon you will be moving through a well
preserved patch of the natural Cork Oak forest, the original habitat of the Lynx in Doñana. |
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Last century they spread all over Spain
but at present we are supposed to have only about 30 individuals left in
Doñana area and only about 150 left in Spain, most of them in Andalusia.
That makes it the most endanger species of wild cat in the world. A
breeding in captivity project has just started. It is considered one of
the last resort to try and preserve the species for the future.
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| Matasgordas wood, named like that for
the unusually large bushes of Mastic Trees, is one of the large raptors preferred
sites. In Spring, hundreds of Black Kites and Booted Eagles nest on its
trees. It is not rare to see early in the morning the huge Griffon
Vulture warming up on the top branches of a dead tree. The edge of the
forest here is an excellent view point over the marshes. |
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The woodland give way to the
marshland. Soil change in a matter of meters from the sand left behind by the sea to
the clay
brought in by the river. We enter the world of the
water birds.
Home for Sandgrouse and Stone Curlew, Flamingo and Imperial Eagle, small
Passerines and giant Vultures, the marsh is the heart of the Park. This
is what
makes Doñana one of the most important bird sanctuaries in Europe.
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| Depending on the season, you will find here a different
landscape. A continuous cycle that today depends completely on the rain.
A paradise for the wildlife in the wet season turns into a dry plain
where only a few larks and sandgrouses still move around. Cattle just
survive through the summer. Surrounded by the vast marshes we will
arrive in one of the National Park visitors´ centres. |
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Jose Antonio Valverde Visitor´s
Centre will offer you a convenient place to take a break. An complete
exhibition and a short video about the park, toilets, a bar and some astonishing
views over the lagoon. This is one of the best bird watching spots in
the whole area. In Spring several thousand Ibis, Herons and Egrets built
here an impressive breeding colony. A visit here is well worth it all
year round since it is kept flooded artificially during the summer. |
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From here we will move forward to the East up to
Lucio El Lobo, a sort of lake in the marshes, a low salty area
surrounded by higher less salty terrain. Usually visited by huge flocks
of Ducks and Geese. Flamingo and Crane are also usual visitors here.
We´ll move along the Caracoles State, some 2.500 has. of cereal fields
that have been recently included in the national park. Works are being
carried out to regenerate the marshes.
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Then we´ll
turn left to go north along the Entremuros channel. This area, affected
in 1998 by the mine toxic spilling, is now fully restored and houses
large numbers of aquatic birds and birds of pray. An old branch of the
Guadalquivir River, Brazo de la Torre, and the Guadiamar River itself
have been canalized between two high dirt tracks in order to have fully
control over the floods in the winter. |
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| At Casa Bomba we shall turn left again
to move west across some vast cereal fields. This is a pumping
station for emptying the channel connecting with the old Guadiamar River.
It drains the water from the farm land around. These are some
of the best Crane grounds in the winter. Eventually we will get to the
old course of the Guadiamar River which is now being partially restored
as a part of the Project Doñana 2005. |
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