Spain Trip Oct 2023 - Part 1 Monfrague National Park, Extremadura

We're continuing on with last year's travels; this time it was our three week trip in October to Extremadura in western Spain and Andalucia in southern Spain. The map below shows the two regions we visited and the map below that is of Extremadura. It took us 2.5 days to drive to northern Extremadura, with overnight stops at San Sebastian and Salamanca. Spain is a large country!

Extremadura is cattle country, despite it being so dry at this time of the year that there is barely a blade of grass anywhere. I wondered how the cattle survived to be honest. They are not in fields but in huge open expanses of land, with pools of water that have been dug into the ground for drinking water, but no sign of any other fodder for eating that I could see. Most of the wild areas are called the Dehesa; these are huge grassy plains dotted about with Holm or Cork Oaks, and quite different from anything we have seen before. The landscape is stunning despite the dryness.

Next time we visit Spain we are going in the spring to see the wildflowers, and hopefully there will be more choice of birds as it will be breeding season by then. 

Copyright Spain Spotters

We started off in Monfrague National Park, which is a nature lovers' paradise, particularly if you like vultures! On the map below, it's the area between Plasencia and Caceres where the rivers are wide. These rivers have been dammed and have formed large reservoirs, and it is a hilly area and very scenic.

Copyright Traildino

Our campsite was within walking distance of one of the park visitor centres, which was very interesting. We also made friends with a cat at the campsite. In fact it was so friendly I feared I wouldn't get 'rid' of it, so was rather pleased when it wandered off and started yowling at some other motorhomers! I'm sure the little tinker gets lots of treats (but not from us, we are not stupid where cats are concerned! 😁).

We were also rather chuffed to spot a lifer bird at the campsite our first evening there. This was at dusk so not a very good shot, but it's a record shot all the same. This is an Azure Winged Mapgie and they are a bit smaller than the regular Magpie, and a lot prettier. We saw them around the visitor centre and in the national park too. With their blue colouring they are quite easy to spot flying around.

These are cork oaks, and the reason for the second cropped photo is to show all the different levels of harvested bark. There are four levels here - click on the photo to bring it up larger and sharper. Look from the middle brown patch on the trunk up the main left branch and you should spot them all. Cork is harvested generally every nine years after a first cut when the tree is about 25 years old, so it's not a fast process!

This isn't a great photo as these Cormorants were very distant, but we watched them moving all the way down a reservoir by this strange sort of half run half fly movement, then rest a few seconds in the water, and repeat! I don't quite know why when they are perfectly able to fly normally. Again, click on the photo to see a bit more detail.

Loved this interesting rock formation.

A lichen tree!

Heliotrope (Heliotropium europaeum) was one of the very few plants flowering in Extremadura, as it was the end of the season and very dry everywhere. 

This granite bridge, started in 1450, doesn't really look old looking down on it like this, but if you look at this website you will see pictures of it when the water level is much lower and you can see all the arches beneath.

I'll post the rest from this park in Part 2 as there are too many photos! 😀