THIS EXUBERANT MASSIF, HALFWAY BETWEEN CADIZ AND MALAGA, IS THE PLACE WITH THE HIGHEST RAINFALL OF THE IBERIAN PENINSULA. THIS SURPRISING QUALITY EXPLAINS THE EXTREME NATURAL VALUE OF THIS AREA, DECLARED WORLD BIOSPHERE RESERVE BY THE UNESCO.

Rain. As miraculous as it is unpredictable. An invaluable wealth, a gift from heaven which, in the South of Spain, is offered by Nature with an irrational stinginess. In Andalusia it was always scarce, except here, in the extraordinary (in every aspect) Sierra de Grazalema. Because this is the area of the Iberian Peninsula that has the largest volume of rain per year: an average 2.200 l/m2.
Here, in this incredible area of 52.000 Hectares, water pours down with a force and speed that could almost be considered a monsoon. This explains its uneven landscape, embroidered with canyons, caves, gorges, valleys, cornices and slopes. Its soluble power was the cause of this slow geographical violence. Millions of years of persistent wear have created a generous habitat, an almost unbelievable (given the proximity of man) refuge for animals and plants. Grazalema, at the few intact forests that remain in Spain, one of the last protected reserves of the European Continent. In spite of the fact that it may seem that this mountain range forms a sort of climatic island (the driest area of Spain, the Tabernas desert in Almeria, is only some 300 kilometres away), it contains features that are characteristic of its Mediterranean enviroment, with thirsty summers and rainy winters.
One would wonder then what circumstances converge to make this area, and no other, the stormiest area of the country.
The reason is to be found in its location. As it rises right between the Mediterranean and the Atlantic, it becomes the first geological wall where the moist and warm winds of the Gulf of Cádiz beat.
Brusquely, they rise to 1.600 metres, which causes condensation of vapour and, thus, the formation of large cloud masses.

 

Land ahead
For a long time, the Sierra de Grazalema was a great physical and sentimental part of sailors' lives, as it was the last place in Spain that they saw on their way to America, and the first on their way back.
Thirteen villages are contained within this natural park. In the province of Cádiz: Grazalema, Zahara de la Sierra, Villaluenga del Rosario, Benaocaz, Ubrique, El Bosque, Prado del Rey, El Gastor and in Málaga: Benaoján, Montejaque, Cortes de la Frontera, Jimena de Libar and Ronda. Most of them share a common feature: whitewash. White specks perched on the boulders, among intense greens and greys. One of the most appreciated legacies is the mass of trees: holm oaks, cork oaks, gall oaks and above all, the Spanish fir, a botanical relic from the Tertiary age that can only be found in the South of the Peninsula.
The most impresive aspect are the gorges and caves, such as Gaganta Verde, with a drop of over 400 metres, or the Hundidero-Gato cave, with five kilometres of galleries and subterranean rivers. Or its fauna, made up of eagles, buzzards, goshawks, hawks, deer, boars or otters.

Back in the "civilisation", we must point out the cultural richness of these villages: their excellent and varied gastronomy, their special celebrations or their ancestral crafts, materialised in the manufacturing of blankets, esparto utensils and leatherwork.

The Sierra de Grazalema is the Spanish capital of rainfall. The small empire of showers, the eldest daughter of the downpour, whose virginity is defended so that it is not abused as in so many other places. Chastity without affectation, where man and nature live in peace without bothering each other, in order to ensure a future of neighbourly co-habitation in this mistreated and blue biosphere called Earth.