Our walk was a loop past a number of century old chestnut trees which were huge! Some of the path was on boardwalk which is great for easy walking. We had been higher up to a monastery earlier in the day but it wasn't very picturesque and the clouds rolled in and spoiled the view, so no point posting those photos.
It may have been chilly but the sun was shining and there were wildflowers which make my heart sing. This yellow flower is another rockrose, Cistus lasianthus (according to PlantNet), with common names of Lisbon False Sun-rose or Woolly Rockrose.
The trees were late coming into leaf here but what caught my eye the most was this amazing lichen, which is really long and hairy! It could be Ramalina farinacea but I know very little about lichens so if you know better, please let me know!
I caught a glimpse of snow capped peaks as we were driving south so I took this photo with my phone through the windscreen. You can see how lovely it looked everywhere with all that yellow Broom!
The map below gives an indication of where we were - we started off in Castile and Leon, by the Portuguese border, and worked our way south to Extremadura. As we'd seen a lot of this region a few years ago, we only visited one town and drove through the Monfrague National Park again, as it was along the way.
Credit: Orangesmile.com
In the park we went to Gypsy Leap where the Griffon Vultures all hang out. If you are lucky you may see other less common vultures. We weren't lucky in that respect.
There aren't any Griffons in my photos but there were loads of them around.
We were lucky though as this Rock Bunting (Emberiza cia) came and perched not far below us and the water behind made for a lovely clear photo - taken by Keith. This bird is a lifer for us! The black markings on its head are similar to those of the Cirl Bunting. They are both very handsome birds.
Another great sight was this Black Stork (Ciconia nigra) sitting on its nest across the water from us.
It then stood up and surprise - it had been sitting on two eggs! Seeing things like that are always wonderful.
Mr Stork then came in to land and stood beside his wife on the nest, with the babies to be. 💕
A quick note about what's going on here - the workmen have just finished and then on Monday, the removals company are bringing our things back! In between we have to clean - I don't know why I went and washed the floor in the bedroom after the tiling was finished as I've had workmen traipsing through it to the bathroom these past three weeks. The garage is really dusty so it's a good thing our stuff isn't there, after all. Then we will be busy putting all our things back in place in the garage and bedroom so I don't know if I will have time to do another post before we go away - we are heading off to Italy at the beginning of September. I will post some photos from the work going on here after our return. I took loads of photos as you can imagine! (All went well, thank goodness!!!)
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