The grand tour of Southern Spain: Western Andalucía 31st January – 6th March 2024 Day 11 - 13 Visiting El Rocio

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Day 11: Sunday Off to El Rocio

Starting mileage: 16342

Will it ever stop raining? Clearly not looking at the forecasts! Is it too late to demand our ferry fares back?

The sandy ground below is sodden but we manage to move off in second gear without bogging down. That’s a relief! Turns out of some of the internal roads are very tight in a 7.5m motorhome! At one corner, due to the inconsiderate parking of two motorhomes whose rear ends are extending out into the narrow gravel trackway, we only just squeeze through with a couple of inches to spare either side.  Our low hanging exhaust bumps the ground several times where severe ruts have been eroded into canyons overnight!

It scrapes again at the entrance to the services area down by the gate. The ramp up onto the concrete base on the left-hand bay is steeper than it looks. I opt to use our own water hose to fill our tank. The supplied one is left uncoiled on the floor next to the grey disposal point! Ugh!

It takes an hour down to El Rocio via the A49. There are good services on road and we call in at a chain restaurant called ‘La Pausa’.  Exquisite chocolate filled and icing sugar dusted croissants. Good cafe con leches as well! The diet is not going well!

Camping La Aldea proves charming. Well laid out pitches with small hedges between. Water taps close by. But, and it is a big but, very, very sandy! That sand gets everywhere and it is too wet to put out groundsheets! Trees are small and well kept, facilities very clean. 23 euros per night with electricity.

We stay put. It is raining! What a surprise!

We read, I do astrophotography processing, Maggie knits. We plan the next few days. We chat to a fellow Brit who is out walking his dog. He and his wife have just rescued a Spanish Waterdog a few days before our arrival, from a Spanish rescue centre outside Sevilla. The dog is shy and cautious around strangers but is responding well.

Route: A49 - 472

Costs: 20 euros x 4 = 92 euros

Distance: approx. 55 miles

Day 12: Monday

It has stopped raining! No sun but no rain! We’ll take it! A leisurely stroll into El Rocio. 

I don’t know what we were expecting but El Rocio proves fascinating, quaint and almost magical or perhaps ‘spiritual’. The town is practically empty. It is nothing but sandy tracks where people get around on horseback or by 4 x 4. Huge puddles – almost lakes in places. Quaint streets with little hermitage recesses. Many gated stable areas and courtyards of apartments beyond them. And lots of places to tie up your ponies, for this is the real centre of Andalusian equine culture! 

It is a small village really although when you wander the empty streets it does feel sprawling. Surrounded by marshes and lakes, it is the gateway to Donana National Park.  This park occupies the northern area of the Guadalquivir river where it meets the Atlantic Ocean. Several thousand years ago it would have in all likelihood been a wide estuary but over the eons long sand bars have grown closing off the area to create large saline lakes and lagoons. Silting up, these now form the huge wetland area with its smaller lagoons, marshlands and semi-permanent sand dunes.

The church at the centre of town down by the lagoon proves a surprise. Absolutely stunning. The gold altar setting is exquisite. Here we learn about the history of the Andalusian ‘Brotherhoods’, the history of the equine culture and the festivals that take place twice a year. A very important religious pilgrimage centre, the main annual pilgrimage takes place on Pentecost Sunday, 50 days after Easter.  

A tip – consider your footwear when strolling around this town. Everything will get very sandy, very quickly! Boots are better than trainers, especially after it has been raining!

We stroll along the lagoon front. There is plenty of bird life to see – the flamingos are well back but in the correct season, the lagoon must be a stunning sight.  El Rocio is the centre of the tours industry into Donana National Park. There are several 4 x 4 outfits in the town centre and it is also a good place to see the Iberian Lynx. Being sort of off season, we don’t avail ourselves of tours into the National Park. And the shops? Well they all focus on horse culture and traditional dress. There are one or two tiny supermarkets and a pharmacy. All the bars and restaurants have horse rails outside. We visited mid-week. Apparently at the weekend, the locals come out on their horses and horse drawn buggies – a sight probably very worth seeing!

An aside! What struck me was the lagoon water level. It was very high reflecting all the rain we had been experiencing on our travels southwards. However, don’t be fooled. The Donana National Park is facing huge drought problems. Conservationists are pitted against farmers who extract water. The park is under pressure from climate change and intensive farming! The EU threatens Spain with financial sanctions over Andalucia’s plans to allow more irrigation, whilst more conservative EU MEPs line up behind the farmers – a wider backlash against environmental legislation affecting agricultural production and farmers livelihoods. This is a long simmering conflict set to continue for many years to come.

After coffee in one of the lagoon front cafes, we head back to the motorhome and hop on the e-bikes. We opt to ride the hinterland of poly tunnel lined roads, lanes and tracks. Strawberries, little tree nurseries, fruit bushes. The area of irrigated poly tunnels is extensive and fascinating. In gaps in the net lined fences, occasional glimpses of small buildings housing migrant pickers.

This region consumes vast quantities of water. These poly tunnels are huge. The European demand for ‘red gold’ – strawberries, raspberries! This area of Spain is responsible for 98% of Spain’s berry production; that’s 30% of the EU total! And here is the issue – 1 kg of strawberries requires 300lts of water and that water comes up from the Donana aquifer below via drilled wells.

As a geographer, I am always fascinated by ‘geographical conflicts’. Here is one in this area. Legally irrigated farmland covers 80% of the farmed area around this region. 20 % of irrigation is illegally obtained. Illegal aquifer wells! In 2021 the European Commission stepped in, its top court ruling that Spain had failed to implement a proper ‘sustainable management plan of the groundwater bodies’ feeding the Donana National Park.

The Andalusian  regional government has promised a new irrigation plan to be implemented imminently. It would legalise 750 hectares of illegal farms. The WWF claims it’s nearer 1900 hectares and its satellite data analyse shows that illegal farms have been proliferating! Certainly, as we cycled around, there was plenty of irrigation infrastructure on display – round white walled wells, pipe head pumps above ground at the end of long runs of irrigation piping. New reservoirs built deep amidst the poly tunnels.

Local farmer associations that represent the legal farms, fear that the water supplies are insufficient to meet demand and that legalising illegal farms will further exacerbate the issues. They speak of ‘unfairly rewarding those illegal farmers’ and fear having to scrap half their crops if the droughts persist and the laws are passed. They will let workers go and lose valuable supermarket contracts. Legal farmers demand that water supplies be prioritised to them and they worry that the controversy over water supplies becomes a reputational problem as consumers become increasingly aware of the environmental problem and crisis facing the National Park.

Throw in arguments about failed promises, failed water transfer schemes, botched water restoration plans and deliberate delays to promised water infrastructure projects and you can see this is real geography affecting real people and environments! It is one of the aspects that made the subject so fascinating for me over the last forty years!

The roads are flat, the cycling good. Occasionally we are passed by white grocery vans adorned with roof top loudspeakers. They pull up at the plantation/poly tunnel entrance roads and the work force magically appear to buy groceries out the back of the van. At 4pm a fleet of coaches tour the roads picking up workers. It is an insight into a way of life and agricultural culture that we rarely see in the UK.

Down the road south of El Rocio, we head up the road to one of the little national park visitor centres. We are in search of the Iberian Lynx!  Fat chance really but we see plenty of forest, marshlands and a few birds.

Day 13: Tuesday 

It has stopped raining. We cycle the long road down to the seaside to the little coastal resort of Malancanas. The road has a little hard shoulder so it is relatively safe at this time of year. It is a misty start and there isn’t much to see in the natural parks beyond the fences. Storks are nesting on the electricity pylons at regular intervals along the roadside. They provide plenty of excitement. Sparrows are nesting in the stork nests. Absolutely fascinating.

The beach area is a typical seaside resort and most of it is closed. The beach is long, golden and stunning, even in the gloom. We have coffee and cake at a sea front café and then gear ourselves up for the long, slightly uphill cycle back home.

The rest of the afternoon is spent cleaning the van and catching up on the laundry! You know, the boring, routine stuff!