That day the wind conspired against the boat excursion in the canals of The Albufera Natural Park (Spain). Until the last minute, we were not sure if it would be possible to do so. A shame, we thought... and accepted that after our fabulous lunch we would just go home.
At one point, the organizer of our trip (concert, lunch and possible boat ride) decided to take that risk - and it was worth it. He asked how many of us would go on the boat trip... and had to count two times as many hands were in the air so he got confused while counting. 😁
I still had time to take a very strong coffee before the boat excursion which made me hyped a bit. I couldn't sleep until 2 am that night. Could be also because of the adrenaline that the day brought but I still blame that coffee.
One of these boats waited for us at the end of the boarding dock. The wind was still showing its power but the boat sailed calmly among the reeds and we didn't have to test our swimming skills. There were no accidents. Only laughter and pleasure that such a wonderful place exists.
We got some beautiful golden colours to accompany our boat ride. The reed whispered its stories and we stayed for some moment silent, just to enjoy the ambience we found ourselves in. The singing choir was taking a rest from making any music. We were the audience this time.
Although the boat ride takes place in the narrow canals of The Albufera, we also went to the open part of the lagoon. Here we can see the waves that the wind made. Luckily I had a jacket with me and a scarf. It was getting a bit cold and the sun was also slowly setting.
The lagoon occupies an area of around 24km². All we see around are reeds, and those typical houses for this region, but actually this water is surrounded by a huge area of rice fields. The water is so important for those fields but not just that is what makes this natural park so valuable.
While we were there we saw several flocks of birds that flew over us. It is because La Albufera is a perfect habitat for so many different species of birds, both native and migratory ones. On a different occasion, I visited with a friend of ours the area of the rice fields to observe the flamingoes and herons. That was a delightful experience.
Slowly we were getting back to the place from where we started the little excursion. The people I was with, the choir singers, all elderly people, talked with nostalgia about this place. How nice it would be to live here.
Idyllic place. A bit far away from the city of Valencia so the life here has to be simple. This is an authentic barrack from this area, but unfortunately, just around 30 barracks survived a fire that happened more than a hundred years ago.
Here we can see a typical barrack used by fishermen.
The interior of this same barrack:
In the village (El Palmar) I saw a few of these authentic buildings. Although the majority of the houses are newly built buildings, adapted to the life they live nowadays, it would be great to see the whole village built in this way.
The little boat ride finished... We had mixed feelings as we wanted it to last for much more time (it lasted for around 40 minutes), but it was pretty enough to put some smiles on our faces and memories that would last for a while.
