The weather Gods smiled on us again and we enjoyed lovelñy sunshine and mild winter temperatures as we commenced our route. We left the village on the old road to Santa Olalla de Cala before following the banks of the Vibora Creek to the south west on the Extremadura side of the regional border. From time to time Royal Herons rose from the valley and flew away majestically as we approached. Soon we came to the point where the Cala River meets the Vibora, the point where the provinces of Seville, Huelva and Badajoz meet. There were egrets enjoying the water and the sun.
We continued to follow the banks of the Cala River, chatting all the way in English, before we arrived to a road and bridge that we crossed. There is a lovely, clean picnic area here and the locals were claiming their public barbecues and picnic tables as we passed.
We continued to follow the banks of the Cala River, chatting all the way in English, before we arrived to a road and bridge that we crossed. There is a lovely, clean picnic area here and the locals were claiming their public barbecues and picnic tables as we passed.
Further down the river, we crossed the dehesa before walking back to the river, where a small dam forms a small lake in the valley which attracted many birds and some blackfoot Iberian pigs. After a picnic lunch of homemade Spanish omelette sandwiches, we walked back through the dehesa to Real de la Jara, passing the impressive mansion of Santa María Magdalena on a hilltop. Energy levels were still high so we decided to extend the walk to the Castle of Real de La Jara, dated from Moorish times, possibly earlier. It was later part of the Banda Gallega, a string of castles across the Sierra Morena which the Spanish christians used to defend from Portuguese incursions in the 13th and 14th centuries. We continued a couple of kilometres more to see the ruins of the Castle of Towers, just in the territory of Extremadura and next to the original Via de la Plata, the Roman road which is now the Santiago Way from Seville to Santiago de Compostela.