![Searching for WILD SPAIN](https://magarticles.magzter.com/articles/12467/636749/607835bf5adcd/Searching-for-WILD-SPAIN.jpg)
My eyes ached. I lowered my binoculars to blink back some life into them then resumed the vigil. Wildlife watching, I reflected, sometimes involves staring for a very long time at nothing while hoping, in vain, for something. But with expert guide Fernando Ballesteros beside me doing the same, I was determined not to be caught napping.
The ‘nothing’ I was scrutinising was, to be fair, the glorious dawn vista of northern Spain’s Cantabrian mountains, and the ‘something’ for which we were combing the rugged slopes was a wild brown bear. Our odds on a sighting were hard to gauge. Here, in Fuentes del Narcea Natural Park, we were deep in bear country and the roadside mirador is a renowned viewing spot. Furthermore, this was peak time: early autumn generally brings the animals up to the higher slopes for the blueberries. But it had been a bad blueberry year, Fernando explained, and they could still be down in the woods, polishing off the last of the season’s hazelnuts.
Either way, it was a fine autumn morning and first light was etching form into the panorama,from the high limestone battlements, down across the heathery hillsides to the dark wooded valleys. As I scanned the horizon, it also revealed distant radio masts, a cable car and what Fernando told me is an old coal-mine: reminders that this is a human landscape, too.
My binoculars inched once again over the landscape. I tried to be methodical, working along ridge and down gulley. Would a bear be out in the open? How big would it look from here? Suddenly I saw a brown animal crossing the scree. Bingo! “Fernando,” I called. “I’ve just…” But he was already onto it. “Chamois,” he exclaimed. “Bravo!” Ah, I think. Nice. But…
RESTORING THE BALANCE
This story is from the May/June 2021 edition of Wanderlust Travel Magazine.
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This story is from the May/June 2021 edition of Wanderlust Travel Magazine.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
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