575 million years ago, the late Precambrian is not a significant date for many people, not like the Battle of Hastings or Waterloo, but for Spain it was very significant. It was when Spain was born.
At that time, the land that would become Spain was on the southern edge of a vast ocean far south of the equator and attached to the northern edge of a continental plate that would, much later, become Africa. It was a new addition to that plate, volcanic processes that spewed molten rock from the Earth’s core into the atmosphere, adding to the land surface above the sea on a daily basis. The magma cooled and became granite on a very different Earth than today. There was no life as we know it, the primitive sea creatures that existed then became extinct long ago when the trilobites arrived, the atmosphere contained little or no oxygen, the land was colored in various shades of red, and the sea was green.
For millennia, the Peripatetic continental plates roamed the Earth, colliding, combining, and merging. Some parts of the plates were submerged under shallow seas and the granite became covered with eroded rock sediments and the skeletons of the earliest living things, some parts were eaten away by glacial action, but more granite suffered the same fate more slowly. as a result. of wind, rain, sleet and snow dragging sediment into rivers where it became another muddy layer at the bottom of a sea, but an area of Spain managed to preserve only a vestige of the original rock. It is 575 million years old, formed when the bedrock of Spain solidified from magma, and is just off the Costa del Sol, a few kilometers west of Cásares in Extremadura in an area called Los Barruecos near the town of Malpartida. from Cacares.
From the moment the magma solidified into granite, it began to erode. By a fluke of nature, this area remained above water, thus above ground, during the tumultuous years that followed. Granite erosion has been caused solely by the prevailing climate. In some areas of the world, 575 million years would have been enough to erode all traces of even bedrock granite, but again this area was different. It has managed to avoid, through all its wanderings around the planet, great extremes of weather and it is a very hard granite. The landscape now consists of low, rounded rock masses, surrounded by thin earth, the remains of material eroded from the surrounding rock and not yet washed into the nearest stream, with occasional outcroppings of granite boulders, some gracefully balanced on others, some eroded into elaborate shapes, some forming high hills, very similar to the Torcal karst formations in Andalusia, but while Torcal’s soft limestone is only 100 million years old and has rapidly eroded into sharp edges, Los Barruecos it looks much more mature, more rounded. , more permanent. It feels like the ancient landscape that it is, which possibly explains why prehistoric man made the area his home and some of the rocks his shrines.
It is not just the prehistoric remains that attract people to Los Barruecos. Fishermen catch fat tench in lakes, called charcas. Tench, fried, is listed as a local delicacy. Historians contemplate the ruins of the Roman villas that were built in the area. Twitchers are delighted with the variety of birds that reside and migrate here.
Geologists study granite and find flat, hexagonal crystals of muscovite in veins of quartz towards the edge of outcrops and other minerals that were mined commercially. You can still see the abandoned sinkholes with a couple of mills, including a wool washing mill, dating from the late 19th century to excite the industrial archaeologist. The naturalist is not disappointed either. It is not surprising that in a unique environment you will find a unique collection of plants.
In such a strange environment the Interpretation Center has to be the place to start and at Los Barruecos the center is excellent with full explanations of the landscape, how it was formed, how it has been used, and the plants, animals and birds that you will find in it. Even before reaching the center, you’ll be tempted to stop by a natural pond to study the various wild birds that live there. Grebes dive for the undergrowth on the bottom, mallards float alongside a court of pochards and coots, house martins and swallows swoop down eating insects drawn to the water while herons and egrets perch majestically in the shallows waiting for their next meal to swim along ignoring the purple gallinules squabbling in the reeds. If you’re lucky, you may see a resident Montagu’s Harrier perched on a pylon or soaring majestically overhead. In mid-September she kept a close eye on her two young, who were learning to hunt.
With such an introduction to the area and armed with a map of the center, you can lace up your boots and embark on one of the park’s many walks. There are three signposted routes, the longest about twelve kilometers although you will find it much longer as you will deviate from the main route to see places of interest. The center actually recommends that you get off the beaten path to see some of the more remote features.
Starting from the parking area shown further south on the map, you don’t have to go far to see the earliest prehistoric remains. Next to the car park is a large group of boulders. In the granite below them, an unknown time ago, man left the first impressions of himself on the landscape by carving geometric designs into the rock. Nobody knows why. The paintings he made on the rocks of the upper ridge to the east and northeast are equally difficult to decipher, but can at least be dated to between 15,000 and 10,000 years ago. The walk takes you to the first and largest pond, to your left is a wooden bird hide and to your right as you walk up the pond is a group of hills. Huge lumps of granite with vertical sides rising from the surrounding rock. For hundreds of years, the tops of these hills have provided nesting sites for white stalks that return to this area each year to raise their young. Later you will see what attracts them to the area, in addition to its remoteness. You’ll find areas by the pools, very low in September, dotted with the shells of the freshwater Norway lobsters that live here by the thousands.
As you walk between the first pool and its slightly smaller neighbor, you ascend a rocky ridge with granite boulders perched precariously on small pedestals. You might notice an unusual feature, a cement-covered saloon car embedded in a concrete block. It is the work of a German artist, Wolf Vostell, who we will talk about later. The undergrowth is thick briars and low bushes among which blue-winged magpies, blackbirds and orioles flutter as you go. The descent to the second pool, through a steep ravine, leads to a wide path next to the first of the mills, integrated into the dam itself. Next, we circumnavigate the pond until, on the north side, the path takes us to the top of another rocky ridge from which we have magnificent views of the entire area. Keep an eye out for Lesser Kestrels who normally sit motionless but watch on top of rocks. They appreciate the panoramic view as much as humans. The third pond, the northernmost, is the most remote and, consequently, the least visited. Here you are likely to see more waders, herons, snipes, stilts and crested grebes. From here the path runs through flatter land that has been grazed for centuries, between grass and small thistles. Crested Larks raise their crests in alarm when you approach, then immediately resume pecking after you pass. Soon you reach the north shore of the first pond. If the water is low, you’ll see even more of the oddly sculpted bedrock, and then you’ll arrive at the Vostell-Malpartida Museum. In this converted wool washing mill, artist Wolf Vostell displays more of his work. In the courtyard is another motor vehicle-inspired creation consisting of a ‘totem pole’ with cars embedded in it. In another 20,000 years archaeologists will no doubt be scratching their heads over these sculptures as they do now over cave paintings.
