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> The Best of Spring
The Best of Spring
With its bright, warm days, spring is a great time for walking and
cycling in its own right, but has many added attractions too, such as
the chance to witness migrating birds and colourful Easter celebrations,
among other things.
 If
it is spring flowers that you are after, then one of the best places to
head is Mallorca, where spring
comes early and the first flowers tend to appear in mid-February. As well
as thirty endemic plants, the island shelters various species of orchid,
for which the best time to visit is early spring. Even if wild flowers
are not really your passion, it is hard not to be impressed by the splashes
of colour that spring brings with it to the island. When in flower, broom
creates patches of bright yellow on the mountain slopes (an effect that
can also be enjoyed in the Cévennes),
while the expanses of red poppies and yellow wattle combine to create
a sea of colour, best viewed from on high. A similar sight can be enjoyed
in Umbria in late May and early
June, when poppies and other wild flowers light up the vast prairie of
the Pian Grande (Great Plain). If you like flowers that delight the nose
as well as the eyes, head to the Tarn,
where you will find wild garlic flowers and can keep your eyes peeled
for lily of the valley (muguet), the traditional flower of the
Fête du Travail (Labour Day) on 1 May. For superb displays of bluebells, choose
the Suisse Normande, or
for a wide range of lime-loving plants, consider Alicante. If you are looking for a real emphasis on flowers during your holiday, then choose our walking discovery holidays in Algarve and Andalucia, where we have specifically designed our routes to take in areas particularly rich in flowers and provide you with a CD and especially detailed walking notes to help you with identification.
Wonderful as they may be, in some regions, such as the Alpujarras
in southern Spain, the flowers (among them 65 endemic species) are not
the main attraction. Here, your eyes can’t help but be drawn up to
the peaks of the Sierra Nevada, Spain’s highest mountain range, whose
covering of snow adds extra drama to the already very striking landscape
of narrow gorges, hanging valleys and terraced orange groves until late
May.
 Just
as spectacular as displays of wild flowers are the shows of almond and
apple blossom. Once again, Mallorca
is a great place to witness this – on the plain, there can be so
much almond blossom that it looks like snow. Almonds are also grown in
abundance on the plain beneath Spain's Ports Mountains, the setting of our Mountains of Southern Catalonia walk. The best time to catch the blossom here is the first
part of March, when it creates a blanket of white that contrasts wonderfully
with the orange-brown soil and the green of the pine-clad slopes. As for
apple blossom, Normandy,
land of cider, pommeau and calvados, can offer plenty, rivalled only perhaps
by Norway’s Hardangerfjord
– in May more than 600,000 fruit trees blossom in the Hardanger area,
their flowers reflected by the snow-capped mountains high above, an extraordinary
sight.
In other regions, it is the fauna – and specifically the avifauna
– rather than the flora that is the main attraction in spring. The
Atlantic Pyrenees, for example,
are on an important migration route for hundreds of thousands of raptors
and other birds as they fly north in spring for the northern summer. Among
the species that you should be on the look out for during this time are
black and red kites, ospreys, hobbies, marsh harriers, buzzards and sparrow
hawks.
 In
Catalonia, the wetlands of the Ebro
Delta (the second most important wetland in western Europe after the
Camargue, home to or visited by 300 different species of bird) and the
Aiguamolls Natural Park attract large numbers of migratory species, so
spring is a period of great activity. In fact, two-thirds of the 329 species
of bird that can be spotted in the Aiguamolls Natural Park over the course
of a year are migratory, and it is not unknown for avid birdwatchers to
spot over a hundred species in a day in spring. Just some of the birds
that can be spotted in the Park between March and May are plovers, flamingos
(April is the best month to spot these), black kites, avocets, ospreys
and short-toed eagles. Naturally, the Park is an important nesting site
for many waders and other birds – a total of 93 species nest in its
wetlands, among them reed warblers and hoopoes. A special programme is
still underway to encourage storks to nest in the Park and our Around
the Gulf of Roses walk takes you right past the stork nursery where
special poles have been erected for storks to build their nests on. Further
south, the Strait of Gibraltar is a key point of passage for birds migrating
between Europe and Africa. If you are lucky enough to witness it, the
sight of a flock of storks flying overhead as you walk in southernmost
Andalucia will provide you
with lasting memories.
Still in Spain, another attraction of spring is Easter celebrations.
Semana Santa (‘Holy Week’) gives rise to much pomp and ceremony
and is marked across the country with spectacular religious processions
– in some of the more elaborate parades, hooded penitents walk alongside
floats depicting religious scenes. Though some of the most colourful celebrations
are those of the great southern cities such as Seville and Granada, arguably
it is the smaller-scale processions of mountain villages that are the
most characteristic. Naturally, hotels fill up very quickly for this period,
so you must always book well in advance, especially for Andalucia.
Finally, if you prefer things a little quieter, head to Italy, where
part of the joy of spring is that there are far fewer visitors than in
summer. We love Tuscany in
spring, and it is also much more rewarding to walk along the spectacular
high paths of the Amalfi Coast
when you have them virtually to yourself.
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