The morning dawned cloudy and comparatively cool, which lent itself well to a run around the complex of forest tracks we'd slept amongst. Before we set off, Emma-the-Mammal-Tracker reported lots of signs of overnight boar activity and sure enough, just as she was finishing her run, she spotted a large (probably) male boar passing purposefully over one of the tracks she'd just run down. Cool but slightly scary. We'd taken different routes by that stage and I couldn't compete: the best I could muster from my route was an entirely unscary (to people) great-spotted woodpecker.
The day's drive has been another untrafficked-road bumble-fest (apart from traversing Badajoz, which was awful) that gave up some splendid vistas both natural and cultural. The best natural sighting was of a chilled red fox sitting nonchalantly in a field, whilst the best cultural sighting was of the castled settlement of Albuquerque.
We are, self-evidently, back in Spain. There were two reasons for this choice. The first was that (notwithstanding Badajoz) dipping back in provided the most direct (bumbly) route to our next Portuguese national park target. The second was the price of fuel: ~€1.70/l in Portugal, whilst in Spain we filled up at €1.47/l. A no brainer!
Tonight's intended overnighting spot is another quiet track affair amongst a mix of habitats. We have some open, boulder-strewn country, a good-sized pond and some harvested cork-oak woodland to gaze out over. You may even have uncorked a wine bottle that relied upon the bark of the tree in the pic at some point.
It's been very birdy and we've also had another good fox sighting. As night's crept in we've also enjoyed / endured an excellent cacophony of cicadas and amphibians calling. Add in the whoops and melodious tones of bee-eaters, hoopoes and cuckoos and it all sounds very tropical indeed.
This post was composed at 22:00 on Tuesday 1st April from our intended overnighting spot N 39.29169°, W 06.97805° / http://maps.google.com/maps?q=loc:39.29169%2C-06.97805