Leaving Puerto Serrano we headed into the Parque
Natural Sierra de Grazalema, a mountain wilderness unique to Andalucia - a
UNESCO Biosphere reserve.
First stop, the beautiful white village of
Zahara de la Sierra. The village sits at the foot of
the Sierra del Jaral and perched on top of a hill and surrounded the the
Zahara-el Gastor Reservoir. It is said that to be the most picturesque of all the Pueblos
Blancos (white villages) in the Sierra de Grazalema - and having been here, we wouldn't disagree!
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| Zahara de la Sierra |
The remains of the 13th Century Nasrid Castle and
lookout tower (Torre del Homenaje) stand guard above the white-washed village below.
It’s quite a steep climb to the top and nothing to see inside the remains of the old Moorish castle. However, once inside you can climb 3 very dark winding flights of stairs to the top, and the 360° views of the mountains and surrounding countryside are incredible. The visible remains of the castle date from the 14th century but it was originally built on top of an 8th century watchtower.
A little bit of history of the village tells us that Zahara de la Sierra was once an important Moorish outpost. During this time, the Nasrid border consisted of a complex network of watchtowers and fortresses that were visibly linked and ran the entire border of the Muslim kingdom. A series of conquests and re-conquests took place between 1407 and 1483. The Christians occupied Zahara from 1407 to 1481, when it lost the village to the Nasrids. The fall of Zahara was considered so important that it was used as a pretext for the start of the War for Granada. The Christian forces battled again and finally conquered the village in 1483.
From the top you can make out the castles of Olvera, Matrera, Cote
and Algodonales in the background - the old Nasrid network!
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| The 17th century Santa Maria de la Mesa Church |
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| The organ and the choir has 15 seats – one for each clergymen who were in the parish, when the church was completed. |
The town isn’t big but it’s nice to spend a
couple of hours wandering around the winding streets, with its Moorish feel
There is an Aire here but we decided to move on
towards Grazalema and across the narrow mountain pass and through the ancient cork
forests.
The cork oak is a highly prized bark for the
bottle stopper production. Cork bark peeling or opening is a process that can
only be done by specialists by marking the planks in the trunks by cutting the cork with axes. They are then transported (usually by mules), weighed and stacked
in different piles, depending on their thickness and quality, then sold and
transported. The cork industry is an important source of income and helps to keep the forests
clean, preventing forest fires. The cork
oak bark is completely renewed every nine years
The park is predominantly limestone cliffs dating
from the Jurassic and Triassic peridos and their uniqueness being the first
mountain range that meets many of the clouds coming in from the Atlantic,
giving rise an exceptional micro-climate.
Over 30% of all the species of plants found in
Spain are represented in Grazalema, including numerous species that date from
before the Ice Age. It is such a varied
natural area, that every cliff face, every mountain top looks different. There were plenty of big birds flying around as well!
We planned to stop off at an Aire at Grazalema to
do some walking, but like the last few weeks the rain just came out of nowhere
and the winds got up so we headed further south to an Aire at Ubrique (N36.67075
W5.44998). After all, who needs a plan! Thanks to the town for another free Aire for disposal ofchemical and grey waste, but a token is needed if you need drinking water, which we didn't as we still had plenty on board.
The town is fairly big and has quite a lot of
leather shops, bars and cafés but not a lot else. So, we only stopped one night
and moved on at lunchtime, over another lovely mountain pass (A373) to Benarrabá.
A favourite Aire of our’s, somewhere we stopped for a
couple of nights last year, after coming out of Morocco. It was quite hot then and we didn’t do much
walking, but this time it is all about the walking! There are a lot of circular and linear walks from here so we hope that the weather will be kind to us and we can venture out and explore this lovely part of Spain.
Sally x
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