Wednesday 11 April (Happy 95th Birthday Mum) – Casares
Left Ronda in the rain but it soon stopped and we had a pleasant run through to Casares. Here we found a very pretty, quiet and secluded parking area outside the village with room for three vans as well as public parking which was barely used during our stay.
Fresh water and facilities all provided at not cost with beautiful views of the surrounding mountains and valleys – just about perfect (provided you don’t mind a bit of windiness).
As we had arrived quite early we decided to take a walk into the village – which entailed a long walk round the valley which gave us a fabulous view of the village hugging the side of the hill and of the stream gurgling through the valley below. We fell in love (not for the last time) with a house at the head of the valley, just outside the village, with a view along the length of the valley, the stream tumbling over some little rapids beside it and it’s own swimming pool – we’re easily pleased.
Casares is a traditional Spanish village with whitewashed houses, narrow winding cobbled streets and the kind of amazing views which are pretty much the norm in this part of Spain. We had discovered that Casares is well known as a breeding site for Griffon vultures – beautiful birds with a nine foot wingspan – so we decided to grit our teeth and continue on to the beautiful church and ruined fortifications at the top of the village in the hope of glimpsing a vulture.
The views from up there were utterly transfixing – the terracotta roofs of the whitewashed houses, the narrow winding streets, the stream meandering through the valley and the mountains beyond. The church and ruins were also captivating and the whole scene was so lovely we felt it couldn’t be improved upon until …..
Standing at the highest point to soak up the scenery, we suddenly became aware of a large shadow drifting slowly across the wall in front of us, looking up we saw our first Griffon vulture soaring in the thermals and updraughts created by the heat of the sun and the steep slopes of the mountains. Within a matter of minutes, as our eyes adjusted to the movement, we had seen perhaps 25 or 30 of these utterly magnificent birds, both above and below us, cruising majestically across the valley like airborne galleons under full sail!
An absolutely magical experience which left both of us feeling quite humbled and truly blessed.
Thursday it rained sideways, then it rained some more…. after that, it rained. We stayed in the van, played scrabble and solved all the troubles of the world by lunch time. (We didn’t really do that last bit but I don’t have much content for Thursday).
Nam (moist) e
Sam and Paul x
Finding the Elephant 