Hypocritical in the Sierra Norte

It was time for more nature and less culture. Micha immediately found a completely natural campsite, so we set off for the mountains above Seville, which reach heights of up to 1,000 meters. The mountain landscape looks completely different here than we know it ... many olive groves and endless cork oak forests, all fenced in and partially secured with barbed wire. Apparently, cork oaks are not only interesting for pigs. Actually, the landscape here is quite gentle and rather hilly, but there are also rugged karst areas, one of which we hiked through this time - an old iron ore mine. The vultures are already sitting in the treetops here, so we were able to observe them from the road (darn it - I'm missing my telephoto lens!). Under the cork oaks, the Iberian pigs were happily grunting before they become popular ham - brown and black pigs with carefully groomed fur. And depending on how long the piglets were allowed to eat cork oak acorns, the price goes up. Of course, we tasted it.

For this, we dressed up and walked 3 km to the next village after a 'household day'. We had been lured there with the promise of a festival in honor of Saint San Diego, the patron saint of the village of San Nicolás del Puerto. This saint was carried through the not-so-large village for 5 hours, accompanied by a serious brass band and the locals; he was greeted here and there and pelted with rice, and finally with rose petals. After 1 hour, we had seen enough and retreated to the still empty bar practically next to the church. Micha immediately delighted the bar ladies with his cheerful charm and his funny Spanish skills (thanks to Google Translator), so we had our first glass of red wine at 5 p.m. and were already satiated with Iberian ham long before the villagers. Between the 3rd and 4th glass of red wine, there was a little dance performance, and between the 4th glass of red wine and the 2nd gin, there was a fireworks display. Then we ran 3 km back through the dark cork oak forest ... in order to sober up again.

The morning started late and the hike was short. All in all, it was a successful detour :-)