Day 33 - Tablas Daimiel Parque Naturale

 Time to move on so we make a plan of stops to make today on our journey to Cuenca. With under two weeks left now planning has become a bit more of a thing as there are definitely places we’d still like to squeeze in if we can.

A final steaming hot shower at the campsite and we are off. Well off the mile or so into town for a quick supermarket stop anyway! The town seems a very different place today. Not sure if it’s because we are earlier or the Easter break has ended or something else but the supermarket is heaving by Spanish standards, there are high school students everywhere and we even see a couple of tourist coaches parked up. Maybe we were just lucky yesterday!

Anyway shopping done and on our way! It’s a beautiful day and this is beautiful countryside. Still loving the pastoral views … probably feels more French than Spanish.. or would have done before Monday. Our first stop is to look at the reed bed national park at Tablas Daimiel. Hadn’t heard of it before but as we will be passing the access road it seems silly not to stop. We have seen a photo of a raised wooden walkway across flooded plains and it has a really varied birding list so …

The visitor centre is a fair way down an access road but it’s a tarmac one and to be fair it’s in better condition than the ten miles beforehand on the main road were! 

There’s a lot of construction work happening on a huge new visitor centre which isn’t open yet but the one that is open has some displays and was able to supply us with a map and information leaflet in English. The site isn’t huge and has three waymarked paths of 3-5 km ish. They are wide almost all raised and absolutely beautiful!! The weather is helping too as the sun is shining and it’s warm enough to not have a coat on!

Never been anywhere quite like it. There are places like the Norfolk broads where there are raised paths to help across water and reeds but not on this scale. The paths cross wildfowl lakes, run through fields of wildflowers filled with buntings and larks, tamarisk woods with finches and tits and pass reed beds alive with Cetti’s ands Savi’s warblers. There are various hides including one viewing a lagoon of flamingoes and stilts and collections of stork nests high on man made supports. 







The Merlin app on my phone is in overdrive helping us identify birdsong. We don’t feel like leaving …. then a request comes through to proofread an essay for my youngest and that’s all the excuse we need. We retire to the van and read whilst we have lunch. 

After lunch we walk out to the watermill which is closed but gives an alternative view of the main lagoon. 



We also discover that whilst wild camping is strictly forbidden  in the national park there are a few spaces by the water mill car park where overnighting is permitted so decision made!

Once the proof reading is done we complete the rest of the walkways that are open. This includes sitting in a hide where there is a swallow nesting overhead. 


Mileage wise they are nothing but with frequent stops it takes us almost until sunset when we park up with two other vans and settle in for the evening. When it’s dark we can hear distant dogs and a nearby scops owl as well as all the wildfowl. It’s quite magical and I really hope we will return here one day ….



Mileage so far: 1781 (haven’t gone far today!)

Steps today: 14,607

Overnight: Autocamping spaces, Watermill carpark, Tablas Daimiel National Park, free

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