Homeward bound

Our last few days at El Puerto de Santa Maria were quite relaxing. We ambled down to the marina again at Puerto Sherry where there is always a selection of different craft to look at.

The coastal path makes very pleasant walking and you can often meet a friend or two along the way.

Last week end we moved on to a place called El Rocio. An extraordinary village which overlooks a section of the Donana National Park. This is no ordinary place - the thoroughfares are all sand,  the buildings have verandahs with hitching rails to tie up your horse, and of course there are horses, lots of them.

It was just like being in a western movie. We saw young boys riding masterfully, families out riding, and folk in horse drawn carriages. Even saw a single file mule train with 7 mules and a covered wagon (unfortunately we didn't have our cameras that afternoon and we didn't see them the following day, pity as it was quite something).

As always in these places the Church is the main focal point and pilgrims travel from near and far to pay their respects to the "Virgen del Rocio", a tiny wooden image in long bejewelled robes.

Up to a million pilgrims descend on El Rocio every Pentecost. The pilgrims dress in bright Andalucian costume and sing, dance, drink and romance their way to El Rocio arriving on horseback, elaborately covered wagons and by foot. It was a lot quieter when we were there but there was still a fiesta feeling about the place. We even saw a group of young Spanish men on a stag week end - the groom was dressed in traditional Flamenco style (a woman's dress) and they were having a ball. I wonder if they acquired the dress from a shop like this! That was our second photo opportunity missed that afternoon.

We left El Rocio on Monday morning to undertake the long drive to Aranjuez to enjoy a few days of rest and relaxation before making for Bilbao on Saturday and our ferry home.

Our time here in Spain has passed very quickly and we have enjoyed seeing old friends and making new ones.

Once again, thank you all for sharing our travels and we hope you have enjoyed reading about our experiences as we have had experiencing them.

Love to all

Kath and Harry xxx

PS We noticed these in El Rocio - don't think they will replace the horse!