Who would have known it, our little river marks the beginning of a rather large one.

It is the Río Corbones, is 177km long, and rises in the hills near our little village, the village so small it doesn’t appear on maps! From start to finish, it has a vertical drop of 780m. It is fed to left and right by tiny streams until the Corbones becomes a tributary to the mighty Guadalquivir River which finds its way to the sea in the Golfo de Cádiz [see map above]. It has a split personality. In summer [above]: languid and lazy, more difficult to see for the riverside trees and shrubs. In winter [below]: feisty and fast, the water crashes down to two waterfalls.

We can track its course along the bottom of the valley [bottom] by following the line of trees, including the poplars so beloved of the Golden Orioles. 5 to remember
las colinas – the hills
un mapa – a map
una caída vertical – a vertical drop
un afluente – a tributary
poderoso/a – mighty