Valleys in Central Spain

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Where we lived in Central Spain, in Cuenca, there are two river valleys that converge in the city.

The wonderful valleys are called “Hoces” ; one, the Hoz del Húecar, is at its most stunning during spring & early summer. It´s a fair walk out of town but one that used to be quite popular when we went out along it for picnics during the early summer.

This is a summer photo of the Hoz del Huécar (not mine though)

I was always so absorbed in trying to discover wild flowers that were new to me or just the incredible diversity of life that abounded in what seemed to be just baked rocks & tinder dry grass.

I went for walks out there on my own sometimes just to see the beautiful flowers in the spring!

The other valley called the “Hoz del Júcar” didn’t seem to be so rich in plant life.

Here is a photo of the Júcar river much higher, in altitude & river course, taken by my wife a few years ago. The Júcar river is green its entire length, till it empties into the Mediterranean Sea at Valencia.

It is a wider valley than the Hoz del Húecar but it seemed drier, without the little streams that run down the sides of the Hoz del Húecar.

This photo is looking up along the Júcar river that runs through the Hoz del Júcar. The trees look wonderful in the autumn for a couple of weeks. Up in the “sky” is the highest point of the city where you can see the clock tower that, centuries ago, was a Muslim prayer tower (minaret?).

I first saw wild orchids in these valleys, the flowers were like black bumble bees! I was most surprised to find orchids flowering away quite happily in the most hard baked barren grass patches in the middle of a Spanish summer when temps easily reached 40ºC!

This photo (mine) was taken at the beginning of October, 2006, the day after our son got married. It´s very similar to the one at the top of this blog even though they were taken years apart!

• 1 Jun, 2009
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