CR Adventures 71120: La Breña Natural Park del Barbate

This is a beautiful hike and well worth doing and relatively easy to complete.

Barbate to Caños de Meca and inland to Vejer de la Frontera extends one of the least extensive natural parks in Andalusia with about 5,000 hectares, the Natural Park of La Breña and Marismas del Barbate.
It has up to five different ecosystems: marine, cliff, pine forest, marshes and dune systems. The impressive Tajo de Barbate stands out, which, at more than 100 meters high, constitutes the most notorious cliff in the Andalusian Atlantic coastline.
To really appreciate this you’ll need to take a boat trip from the port of Barbate through its crystal clear turquoise waters, where diving and snorkelling are also practiced.
In its cliffs eroded by water and wind, there are springs of drinking water that pour into small creeks, they are the well-known pipes. Along with brambles and fig trees grow typical plants of saline environments such as almajos, barrillas or immortelle. Numerous Cattle Egrets, Jackdaws, and the Yellow-legged Gull, Peregrine Falcon, Turnstone and Whimbrel breed in the hollows of the stone. Among the birds of prey, the osprey, the owl and the common kestrel stand out. Fans of paragliding and hang-gliding have in this space ideal places to practice these sports.

Although not explored on this particular occasion the biodiversity is multiplied in the marshes and lagoons, which shelter a large number of birds, as they are a nesting area and passage of migrations. A walk inside will allow us to photograph the mallard, common coot, shoveler, and even some small grebe, gray or imperial heron. Bittern, bastard nightingales and common warblers can be seen among reeds.

The La Breña pine forest with its intense repopulation of pines to stop the mobile dunes has made it the largest pine forest in Cádiz, from which pineapples and pine nuts are used. Throughout the forest there is the amazing aroma of pine mixed with that of rosemary and lavender together with palm hearts, black hawthorn and even broom or mastic, form the existing Mediterranean scrub.
The pine forest extends to the edge of the cliff, where Aleppo pine coexists with juniper groves and abundant junipers.
Throughout the forest there were clusters of dragon flies going about theirs daily chores and sunny themselves on the rays of light extruding through the pine trees which was lovely to see.

Inside the Natural Park there are two beacon towers one of which can be accessed via the Torre del Tajo trail.
These are the Torre del Tajo (16th century) and the Torre de Meca (19th century), declared as assets of cultural interest.
The first is located on the highest part of the cliff of the same name and from which you can see unbeatable views of this area of ​​the Cadiz coast. One of the most important historical events of modern times took place here: the naval battle of Trafalgar in 1805, where the English commander Nelson defeated the Spanish-French armada.
The oldest watchtower warned about pirate ships in the 15th and 16th centuries and later witnessing the Battle of Trafalgar.

Since the Phoenicians, the role of the sea was fundamental, with tuna fishing in almadraba and salting. Barbate continues to be a great fishing centre, with its commercial port and great fondness for angling. Smooth and eels are fished in the estuary; and in the marsh, sea breams and sole. In this way, the visitor will acquire in situ products of salted tuna, mojama and cured roe.