A cloudless blue sky augured well for the day and we had a
lazy start. We are heading for Zafra to meet up with friends on Friday but,
much as we love Zafra, we don’t want to spend two days in the Zafra aire as it
is rather noisy. Jane found another aire just 45 minutes from Zafra at Berlanga
and that allowed us to plot a meandering route.
As we came of the Sierra de Guadalupe, we headed for the
Embalse (reservoir) de Garcia de Sola. We were heading through craggy hills and
found the reservoir much depleted after the hot, dry summer. The lower
stretches were however full and went on for many kilometres, with some very
pretty scenery. This area is full of reservoirs, producing large amounts of
hydroelectric power and drinking and irrigation water. We past many thousands
of olive trees before the land turned dry and stony and apparently barren
although I suspect that there was lots of grass before the summer heat burned
it up. Later we moved into the Iberico ham area with many pig farms and fields
of small oak trees (the pigs eat the acorns).
We arrived at the aire on the outskirts of Berlanga and,
after a late lunch, set out to investigate. The aire is in a nature park where
walks have been created around a small lake and animal compounds and cages hold
animals and birds. There is also plenty of real wildlife with ducks, black
swans and interesting birds such as the flock of Azure-winged Magpies that flew
into the picnic area next to the van. We strolled around the lake before
heading into the village that appeared to be asleep or just distinctly lacking
in people. We found the main church that looked really interesting on the
information boards but it was closed.
We stopped at a bar (the only open bar!) on the way back and
had a large beer and red wine for which we were charged €2 (£1.50) and that
included a little cheese and bread! I gave a 50% tip, something that I have
never done before!
Photos: Some unusual rocky landscape; View over the lake of
the Berlanga Nature Park; a black swan.
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