The Purple Penguin

So we didn’t take a laptop on this trip. For once. But Joe took loads of photos and they’ll be on Flickr at some point. And I took notes while we travelled and now updating with dates as they happened.

We stayed at the Premier Inn at Gatwick before leaving. We thought about it and we think this is the first pre-set trip we’ve taken, where flights, transportation, and schedule are set before we book. So it’s a test to see what we think of doing this sort of thing, especially now we aren’t walking as much. Our flight was early so we were up early and got the bags dropped off. Had breakfast at the airport (don’t recommend Wagamamas for breakfast – lunch or supper yes, but breakfast wasn’t as nice). The flight wasn’t too full and we had three seats to ourselves. Joe was scoping out the other travellers to see if he could spot the others on the trip and the guide. We did see two others, but not the guide – he introduced himself in the passport control line! Got through immigration, got our bags (again the guide grabbed them, going to have to get used to that!), and we were off. We had taken off from London in fog and rain and landed in sunny Spain!

Piled into the van – small group with only five of us and the guide so we all had a window. The drive to El Rocio was nice and El Rocio itself interesting. All dirt/sand roads as it’s set up for horses, so is the origin of the ‘old west’ town. All low mission buildings, limited pavements, dirt roads, and railings in front of everything for tying up horses. The bars have tall shelves in front so you can ride your horse up and drink without dismounting – which we saw while we were having lunch. We went straight for lunch when we arrived and of course we didn’t get the name of the bar where we had lunch for two days! But the food was very good – we had the bean stew and then a platter of grilled meat with chips was brought out. The food on the trip was very good and lots of it! We ate more at one meal then we normally eat in a day.

After lunch we got checked into the hotel (Hotel Toruño) where we had a room on the first floor with a view out over Charco de la boca. We were there long enough to drop bags, have a quick admire of the view, sort out camera and binoculars, then we were off in a Coto Doñana ranger van to see the park. The only way to see the park is by ranger, so really the only way to see the area is through booking a trip and even then you only get the edges of the park. There are areas of mixed use – so farm land and other uses, but the main bit of the park is closed. The national parks in Spain where you can see lynx are heavily controlled and closed to people, so if you want to see them you have to hope they come out toward the edges where you’re allowed!

So we did a slow drive through – the main way is the Royal Way which is still a horse track that goes to Sevilla – and we did a turn off this into the park. We saw lots of birds, loads of deer (red deer), and rabbits. Highlights were a common buzzard, stonechats, little owl, Spanish sparrows, and a lynx. The lynx was spotted on our way out just trotting along the path next to a bloke on a horse (we think it was the same man and horse at the bar during lunch). Then it ducked into a bush so after waiting a while we headed on to other areas. On the way out we passed a couple of other tours, one of which saw the lynx pop its head out of the bush then back in, so we raced back to where we’d seen it and waited. Sure enough, out it came, across the track, then decided to hunt something in another bush so we got to watch it stalk and pounce. Either it missed or swallowed whatever before it came back out because it didn’t look like it had anything. A young male, just under a year old.

Back to the hotel where we went down to the water to watch the sunset and saw loads of water birds and bats – Leisler’s Noctule and Soprano Pipistrelle. Then off to dinner – the hotel has a restaurant next to it and we had a table at the back.