likely to see warm and sunny weather.
Plants and wildlife
Two major highlights of any walk in southern Spain come in the form of the flowers and birds you see along the way.
Andalucía is among the best birding destinations in Europe and ornithological tourism has grown rapidly in recent years. The best time for birdwatching is during the spring and autumn migrations between Europe and North Africa, but at any time, in all parks covered in this guide, you can expect rich bird life. As well as seasonal visitors there are more than 250 species present throughout the year.
The marshes close to Barbate is one of the best sites in southern Spain for observing wading birds, both sedentary and migratory, while at the eastern end of Andalucía the salt flats of the Cabo de Gata Natural Park provide a superb observatory for wader and duck species such as ibis, spoonbills and coots as well as greater flamingos.
(clockwise from top) Griffon Vulture, Bee-eater and Crested Lark (images courtesy of Richard Cash of Alto Aragón)
One of Europe’s most remarkable wildlife events are the annual migrations across the Strait of Gibraltar. This offers the chance to observe thousands of raptors including Egyptian, griffon and black vultures; golden, imperial, booted and Bonelli’s eagles; honey buzzards and harriers as well as storks and smaller passerines. The birds circle up on the thermal currents then glide between the two continents. The migration into Spain takes place between February and May while birds heading south can be seen from August through to late October.
If you’d like a list of the more common species, visit www.cicerone.co.uk/803/resources.
For further information about birding resources and organised birding tours and walks, see Appendix B (Useful contacts).
Wildflowers in spring
The southern coastline also offers rich rewards for botanists. Forty per cent of all species found in Iberia are present in Andalucía and many of these grow in the coastal region. The annual wildflower explosion in late spring is as good as any in southern Europe, especially in areas where the rural exodus has ensured that much of the land has never seen the use of pesticides. For a list of 300 of the more common species, with common and Latin names, visit www.cicerone.co.uk/803/resources.
Vertebrates are less easy to spot but are also present. Along with the grazing goats, sheep, cattle and Iberian pigs you may see squirrels, hares, rabbits, deer, wild boar, otters and mongoose. Ibex (Capra pyrenaica hispánica) are making a rapid comeback in many of the regions described here, especially so in the Sierra de Tejeda and on the southern flank of the Sierra de Ojén. And on the Gibraltar walk you’ll certainly have close encounters with Barbary apes as you follow the high ridgeline from O’Hara’s Battery.
Close encounter of the bovine kind in the Breña forest (Costa de la Luz, Walk 4)
Andalucía has a long roll call of reptiles. Of its many species of snakes just one is poisonous, the Lataste’s viper, which is rarely seen in the coastal areas. Iberian and wall lizards are common, as are chameleons, while the much larger ocellated lizard can often be seen near the coast and especially along the ramblas (dry river beds) of Cabo de Gata.
Appendix E (Further reading) includes details of guidebooks that will help you to identify the plants and wildlife of Andalucía.
Andalucía over the years
Anyone who’s travelled to other parts of the Iberian Peninsula will be aware of the marked differences between the regions of Spain and its peoples. If Franco sought to impose a centralist and authoritarian system of government on his people, the New Spain, ushered in with his departure and the advent of liberal democracy, actively celebrates the country’s diverse, multilingual and multi-faceted culture.
But if Spain is diferente, as the marketing campaigns of the 90s and noughties would have us believe, then Andalucía is even more so. It is, of course, about much more than the stereotypical images of flamenco, fiestas, castanets, flounced dresses, sherry and bullfighting: any attempt to define what constitutes the Andaluz character must probe far deeper. But what very quickly becomes apparent on any visit to the region is that this is a place of ebullience, joie de vivre, easy conversation and generous gestures. The typical Andalusian’s first loves are family, friends and his or her patria chica (homeland), and it’s rare to meet one that isn’t happy to share it all with outsiders.
What goes to make such openness of character is inextricably linked to the region’s history and its geographical position at the extreme south of Europe, looking east to Europe, west to the Atlantic and with just a short stretch of water separating its southernmost tip from Africa. This is a land at the crossroads between two continents, at the same time part of one of the richest spheres of trade the world has ever known: the Mediterranean Basin. Visitors from faraway places are nothing new!
Roman ruins on the Atlantic Coast near Tarifa
A thousand years before Christ, the minerals and rich agricultural lands of Andalucía had already attracted the interest of the Phoenicians, who established trading posts in Málaga and Cádiz. But it was under the Romans, who ruled Spain from the 3rd century BC to the 5th century AD, that the region began to take on its present-day character. They established copper and silver mines, planted olives and vines, cleared land for agriculture and built towns, roads, aqueducts, bridges, theatres and baths while imposing their native language and customs. Incursions by Vandals and then Visigoths ended their rule, but its legacy was to be both rich and enduring.
The arrival of the Moors
If Rome laid the foundations of Andalusian society in its broadest sense, they were shallow in comparison to those that would be bequeathed in the wake of the expeditionary force that sailed across the Strait in 711 under the Moorish commander Tariq.
After the death of the Prophet, Islam had spread rapidly through the Middle East and across the north of Africa, and the time was ripe for taking it into Europe. Landing close to Gibraltar, Tariq’s army decisively defeated the ruling Visigoths in their first encounter. What had been little more than a loose confederation of tribes, deprived of their ruler, offered little resistance to the advance of Islam across Spain. It was only when Charles Martel defeated the Moorish army close to the banks of the Loire in 732 that the tide began to turn and the Moors looked to consolidate their conquests rather than venture deeper into Europe.
A first great capital was established at Toledo, and it became clear that the Moors had no plans to leave in a hurry: Andalucía was to become part of an Islamic state for almost eight centuries.
The cathedral of Santa Maria in Ronda which has an Arab minaret as its bell tower
Moorish Spain’s Golden Age took hold in the 8th century, when Jews, Christians and Moors established a modus vivendi the likes of which has rarely been replicated, and which yielded one of the richest artistic periods Europe has known. Philosophers, musicians, poets, mathematicians and astronomers
