Puente Genils to Huelva

Thursday 26th November.
Puente Genils to Huelva
The rain in Spain does fall mainly on the Plain – and it’s true, it rained all day as we drove from Puente Genils to Seville. Before heading for the coast we visited the Laguna de Zonar a wild life reserve and we both immediately felt a lot happier in the fresh air and countryside away from the car, the motorway and cities. Suddenly I felt rather bad about all the times I’ve scoffed at people “going away to find themselves” – this wasn’t quite the same but we realized that we knew all along what we really like.
We’d decided to head for Huelva the northern most part of the sherry region with the intention of working our way slowly south to Cadiz by the 5th Dec. in order to meet the Wells’ and their boat. But, there is a river between Huelva and Cadiz (crossable by ferry) and also a National Park (not crossable on a bicycle – whether this is because they just don’t want people in it or because there are lynx in it which might chase cyclists we never discovered) Also in the middle of the park there is a village called El Rocio. This is a typical ‘western town’ Wooden houses and stores either side of a wide street, mangy dogs, horses being lunged by macho mustachioed gauchos and the entire town covered in sand – not a trace of tarmac anywhere. So we stayed one night in Huelva, nice hotel, dining room the size of a tennis court, strip lights, TV that took up one whole wall, football and flamenco musak – such bliss!! Before dinner could be served they had to clear out the maternity class – most of them didn’t look old enough to conceive and really ought to have been still at school. The guide book had said that in Huelva they mine carbon so we thought it would be for pencils and fishing rods, but driving towards it there was an overwhelming smell of gas for about 10 miles. It is a colossal gas refinery and we were glad not to see anyone smoking nearby!