PALENCIA PROVINCE, SPAIN
Call of the wild
The howl of the wolf readily calls to mind some snow-shrouded Arctic forest – less often the land of sunlit plazas and pitchers of sangría. The far north of Spain has always been a land apart from the rest of the country, however; the Cantabrian Mountains mark off the coastal strip and ensure it stays a deep shade of rain-fed green. The range is one of Europe’s unheralded wild spaces, and home to perhaps the largest wolf population west of Russia. Autumn months are a good time to sight this elusive creature: Naturetrek’s tour takes walkers around the foothills in the north of Palencia province to known wolf haunts, with nights spent in a huddle of restored farm cottages. Previous tours have spotted wolves at least nine times out of ten.
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