I have learned something about grazing animals from all this. Even regular milk cows have a natural environment (outside of feed-lots and stalls). Sometimes during a walk a clearing in woods will appear, and behold! Cows grazing among trees and in meadows. They actually like wandering about, feeding off land, winding in and out among trees, clambering up hill-sides, getting a cool drink from creek, relaxing in shade…just like humans! Deer are also found, and it is quite common to encounter these. There is a smaller kind and a larger more standard variety (bushy white tails) and these will graze where they find pasture, or move around woods. Wild boar are plentiful, and hunting for these and deer are common. Some areas have been designated ‘hunting zones’, as well as ‘fishing zones’. This is a trout and salmon area; coast is of course known for variety and abundance of marine life. In higher mountains there are bear and wolves, but so far I have stuck more to ‘in- between’ places, away from coast and yet below heights. We are here surrounded by lower mountains, yet impressive. These provide a plethora of ways to go, from hilly countryside to higher climbs, where trees thin out and goats pasture. The autochthonous breed of cow (usually for meat) is ‘Asturian of Mountains’ which half resembles a goat in it’s lanky toughness, narrow head with goatish horns, and ability to scramble over rocky mountain-sides with best of them. These days, with a declining human population, and a vanishing tradition of cowherding, people are putting a variety of grazing animals out to pasture, if only to keep grass down and maintain fields. Sheep, goats, horses, donkeys, whatever will eat prairie- we know a family that keeps ostriches!

One of best routes to take in this particular area is called Fuensanta, which takes its name from famous springwater found there. This water is bottled and sold throughout Europe, and natural beauty and freshness of place tells why. Here is a gorge which rises steeply into mountains, reaching a series of waterfalls which are source for all this wetness. Fill your bottles up at beginning of path (there is a public fountain) and walk 6 mile (10 km) loop, following rise of land to falls and then descending again. Make sure you brought some empty bottles in car so you can fill them up for drinking at home.

Yes, we live in Middle-Earth. I know this to be true when on an early morning mist hangs over valleys and dales between hills, when rolling fields rise to meet looming mountains at sunset, when stars shine clear and bright in night-sky. The view from a highpoint shows landscape dotted with houses, fields, grazing animals, gardens, fruit trees, and wooded slopes of mountains surround valleys of hills. There is land to plow and woods to walk and waters to swim. The sea is less than an hour away from ski-slopes on high mountains, whose peaks are snowy most of year and tower in distance. This land is indeed a Natural Paradise.

J Michael www.waytospain.com