Isla Cristina, southwest Andalucía
17th – 29th January: Isla Cristina
Our final stop, just before crossing over into Portugal, was Isla Cristina. To get there, we drove past Seville (planning to return!) and Huelva, coming to a halt at this small seaside town because it had a motorhome stop which came recommended. It wasn’t a beautiful town and we weren’t right by a beach and, in fact, the weather wasn’t great while we were there so we didn’t visit the beach anyway – but it had its own charm, and we loved the peace and quiet of this place, along with the friendly comraderie at the campsite, and so we stayed 12 nights and have lots of fond memories!
https://camperpark.es/ 37.22380516167081, -7.3206647634957225
Our motorhome stop was about a kilometre outside the town of Isla Cristina, Camper Park Playas de Luz. It sits on the edge of salt marshes which are home to a wide range of waders and other migratory and year round birds. It’s a lovely new campsite, has good facilities, and a swimming pool has been added since we were there! €13.50 per night, including EHU.
The sunsets in this area were breathtaking. All these pics below were taken on the same evening when we took a short stroll outside our site.
The little white building below, which was near where we stayed, houses a tidal mill on the salt beds of Isla Cristina. It was built in the 18th century. Sourcing salt from shallow-laid beds of seawater dates back to Roman times if not long before. This tidal mill lets water into the marsh and salt beds as the tide comes in and the water level rises. A gate inside the mill then closes in order to retain the water as the tide goes out.
The series of tidal streams and marshes in this area have been exploited by humans in a variety of ways over the centuries. The shallow salt beds are home to small shrimp which, as well as feeding humans, also provide food for the wide range of wild birds in this area. We spent lots of time bird watching! And we were particularly excited to learn that Little Terns live here, a bird which nests on the beaches around Kilcoole! Having driven all the way from Kilcoole to Isla Cristina, we had a new appreciation of the phenomenal journeys these small birds make, twice a year.
We also saw cormorants, black tailed godwits, redshanks, greenshanks, plovers, black winged stilts, wagtails (which we see in Ireland of course), Montague’s harriers, lots of black headed gulls, little egrets, grey herons, shovelers (look like mallards), little terns and sandwich terns, and the pièce de résistance, flamingos!
Birdwatching
There were several lovely walks available to us right on our doorstep (vanstep?). One took us up laneway which was once a train line, much to Morgan’s delight, although he’d have been even happier if the train were still there! You can see Morgan, below left, on this laneway with the old train station up to the left and the rusted train engine water tank in the background. Cacti aplenty along this track. This laneway ran alongside the salt beds and we came across a gentle donkey on our walk, along with spotting a myriad of birds, very few pics of which came out well.
We were on the look out for flamingos all the time we were in Isla Cristina and, a few days in, we got lucky.
Saul: these flamingos start to complain as I edged closer:
We trekked all round the salt beds to follow these flamingos. We were so excited to spot them, but then they upped and flew away over to the other side of the marsh! It was a spectacular sight, watching over 30 flamingos in flight…. and they were pretty noisy with it. Ice creams were promised for those who were prepared to walk 2km to see them on the other side 😁
Flamingos are pink because of the brine shrimp they consume… which leads us to the salt waters. For centuries, this marshy area outside Isla Cristina has been harvested for sea salt. The salt beds are long, narrow, shallow pools. The level of sea water which enters and leaves is now controlled by pumps. In the summer, the sun dries the water and the remaining salt is harvested using brushes. We came across huge mounds of salt, harvested and waiting for cleaning and processing.
Salt beds and a huge salt hill:
Somebody lost some teeth while in Isla Cristina!
At this campsite we made some lovely friends, including a Welsh/English couple called Andrea and Grant. Grant is a veritable genius in all things engineering related! He helped us sort our leisure battery issue and we are now much freer to wild camp without running out of power. Whew.
Saul and Grant atop the Krystal attaching a new solar panel 🌞 (as another gorgeous sunset is reflected on the van).
Apologies for more sunset pics but this place was just so astounding for sunsets, I can’t help sharing a couple which i took! Again, no filters here…
After close to a fortnight in Isla Cristina, we felt ready to move on to see what awaited over the border…