Andalucía’s first parque natural is pretty unknown,yet Sierra de Grazalema is a stunning wild state of peaks, gorges, and hilltop villages and vulturesA goat farmer told me no one swims in the lake at Zahara de la Sierra because its full of fish with crocodile heads. Is that why I’m the only person in 128 sq km of cool water on a very hot day? I later learn that this manmade lake (embalse),the mountain ranges to the south of it, and the cliffs, and gorges,flower meadows, forests and caves all around are simply, and for the most fragment,empty. Spain has a surplus of staggeringly beautiful wild spaces, but this one nearly 54000 hectares north-east of Cadiz, or overflowing into the province of Málaga – became the country’s first Unesco biosphere reserve in 1977. And Sierra de Grazalema became Andalucía’s first parque natural in 1984.
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Source: guardian.co.uk