Having recieved lots of advice from the lovely folk on this forum before our holiday I felt that I should post the results.
We had an absolutely marvellous ten days and I would recommend this area to anyone.
I asked for advice about the journey from Madrid. This was not difficult except perhaps for the M40, Madrids equivalent to the M25. I am usually a good map reader but somehow or other I managed to lose us both on the way from the airport and on the way back! After a brief panic we were soon sorted out though. The only other comment would be that the traffic into Madrid on Sunday evening was very heavy and very slow. It was a good thing we had started our journey back to the airport very early.
I was unable to book any of the hotels recommended but several people had suggested the Trujillo area. I found a smallish hotel in Madronera south of Trujillo. Hotel Soterraña http://www.soterrana.com/. This was friendly, food was great and it was terrific value - especially as they gave us a discount at the end.
Much to our suprise we saw most of the birds we had hoped for, including Black winged Kite, which we had not dared to wish for. We used John Muddemans book, "A Birdwatching guide to Extremadura", following many of his routes. This is an excellent book but be aware that as Spain "improves" its road network some of the descriptions and distances have changed a little - not enough to get you completely lost though.
On the subject of road "improvements", work is currently in full swing on the road out of Monfrague towards Placencia. It makes the road very difficult to drive on and when we passed we felt very sorry for anyone using the campsite which seemed to be engulfed in dust and would have been noisy.
Anyway, there are pictures of the area and lists of birds posted on my web site at http://www.stennetts.dsl.pipex.com/holMay2004.htm.
Thank you to everyone here for your help
Kath
We had an absolutely marvellous ten days and I would recommend this area to anyone.
I asked for advice about the journey from Madrid. This was not difficult except perhaps for the M40, Madrids equivalent to the M25. I am usually a good map reader but somehow or other I managed to lose us both on the way from the airport and on the way back! After a brief panic we were soon sorted out though. The only other comment would be that the traffic into Madrid on Sunday evening was very heavy and very slow. It was a good thing we had started our journey back to the airport very early.
I was unable to book any of the hotels recommended but several people had suggested the Trujillo area. I found a smallish hotel in Madronera south of Trujillo. Hotel Soterraña http://www.soterrana.com/. This was friendly, food was great and it was terrific value - especially as they gave us a discount at the end.
Much to our suprise we saw most of the birds we had hoped for, including Black winged Kite, which we had not dared to wish for. We used John Muddemans book, "A Birdwatching guide to Extremadura", following many of his routes. This is an excellent book but be aware that as Spain "improves" its road network some of the descriptions and distances have changed a little - not enough to get you completely lost though.
On the subject of road "improvements", work is currently in full swing on the road out of Monfrague towards Placencia. It makes the road very difficult to drive on and when we passed we felt very sorry for anyone using the campsite which seemed to be engulfed in dust and would have been noisy.
Anyway, there are pictures of the area and lists of birds posted on my web site at http://www.stennetts.dsl.pipex.com/holMay2004.htm.
Thank you to everyone here for your help
Kath