Middle-aged flash packers

A vow of silence would actually have been a welcome intervention by our monastic hotel. People who wish their friends goodnight then continue to converse at over 120 decibels right outside my door at midnight are clearly in need of enjoying some contemplation in a room a long way away from me.

A dreadful night’s sleep saw us resentfully drag ourselves out of bed earlier than we wanted in order to visit Monfrague park. Apparently the bird life here is outstanding with the star of the show being the Griffin vulture. I’m not mad about birds but Steve is, so I put this in the itinerary just for him. I’m all heart.

The park itself is a UNESCO biosphere area which means it helps to manage ecosystems. Vultures are very sensitive to pesticides and they are being driven to extinction in many parts of the world because they eat dead meat that has been poisoned by ingesting pesticides. These pesticides are banned in the west but apparently in Africa you can walk into any shop and buy them, so poachers use them to kill elephants and rhinos then take their tusks.

On arrival at the park we opted to walk the red route and it was a great choice. We saw short toed eagles, imperial eagles, griffin and black vultures. Lots of them. They seem to like high, rocky crags where they can roost and swoop around. We had fantastic views of them swooping low and perching themselves on outcrops. Amazing, even I was impressed.

The scenic drive, which we did after the walk, was bereft of anything winged unfortunately but I did see a huge stag having a cool off in a watering hole.

We made our way to Trujillo which was our overnight stop before heading for the Costa de la Luz. Our home for the night was the San Miguel Hostal. I’ve been avoiding the hostals like the plague as I think they might be of varying quality (as in flea pits) but this one is really lovely – all ancient doors and original tiled floors. And so cheap. The owner is quite eccentric. I wasn’t looking forward to meeting him as I had a very strange conversation about parking with him using my rusty Spanish, but he seemed to forgive me for destroying his native tongue.

And then disaster struck.

Or as much of one as you can have, living a Waitrose life.

Our booking for the next five nights was cancelled. Slimy Pedro obviously got a better offer and bailed on us. Swine . It had taken us ages to find anywhere in the area we wanted and at a decent price. Cue much scouring of the internet to book something and eventually found one place (double the price of course) we think should be ok.

Tired and hungry (imagine tiny violins playing at this point) we plodded into Trujillo.

Ah, nearly forgot to tell you this. The famous conquistador Pizarro came from Trujillo. He made his mark in Peru where a town also called Trujillo now exists in his honour. Before settling on Hostal San Miguel, I wasted quite a bit of time scrolling through air B and B looking for places to stay before realising I was about to book somewhere in Peru rather than in Spain.

Anyway, the Plaza Mayor in Tujillo is delightful and lifted our mood, especially when Steve discovered the castle was the Lannister’s residence in Game of Thrones! How cool is that. That will be explored tomorrow as we only had enough energy to consume a couple of beers, a lot of food and make it back to Hostal San Miguel.

Monfrague park expectations – exceeded (Steve was in charge of evaluating this one)