1. Day 1 Fly to Seville, transfer to El Rocio & Coto Doñana

   • Fly from London to Seville and transfer to El Rocio & Coto Doñana, some two to three hours away.
   • On the edge of the renowned Coto Doñana National Park, El Rocio is an extraordinary village which fiercely preserves its own totally distinctive appearance and character. The wide sandy streets are lined with white houses, many of them ornately decorated by the religious brotherhoods from surrounding villages that come here at pilgrimage time. Often described as looking like a ‘Wild West’ town, El Rocio seems more reminiscent of old Mexico: the main form of transport is still horseback, with hitching rails provided outside the bars, shops and even the private houses. In the evenings, riders pause outside the bars to sip sherry and chat on horseback, while pallid swifts and red-rumped swallows wheel about overhead.
   • Just beside our hotel lies one of Doñana’s fabulous marshes which, even when dry, attracts birds. In the autumn, red deer stags can be heard roaring from deep inside the marsh in the early mornings.
   • Accommodation: Hotel Toruno, El Rocio, 4-nights on full board basis.

2. Days 2-4 Doñana National Park

   • The remainder of the Iberian lynx population lives in and around Doñana National Park, a quite different environment of flat grasslands and pine forests where just a few individual oak trees or remnant patches of Mediterranean oak forest are found. This is an area besieged by the marching tide of Spain’s EU-funded agricultural revolution… and a noose of roads grow ever tighter as Seville and its suburbs expand.
   • Despite a slowly increasing population, the chance of seeing an Iberian lynx by chance here is very small, so we'll enlist the help of local guides, who will take us for excursions into the national park and adjacent natural park areas where they know the best places to find tracks and signs of lynx.
   • With such an intensive itinerary, we also take a break from our lynx quest and head down to the coast for a day’s birdwatching along the shore and in its adjacent lagoons and saltpans. With a wealth of wintering and migrant birds, it’s always a rewarding experience, including flocks of greater flamingos plus numerous waders and gulls, and even with a good chance of Mediterranean chameleon too.

3. Day 5 Drive east to Andújar Natural Park

   • This morning, we depart El Rocio and drive east to the rugged hills and mountains of Andújar Natural Park, some four hours away.
   • Accommodation: Complejo Turístico Los Pinos, Andújar, 3-nights

4. Days 6-7 Andújar Natural Park

   • Andújar Natural Park has some of the best preserved Mediterranean forest in the Iberian Peninsula. Amongst the oak forest that clads these hills are grassy glades and secluded valleys where the lynx hunt rabbits, rest amongst the rocks, and raise their young in ancient, hollowed oaks. Here live the majority (perhaps 70% or more) of the world’s remaining Iberian lynx. Perhaps here, in a refuge from the modern world, it has a chance of survival.
   • In this quiet and relatively unpopulated region, others of Spain’s wild animals thrive. As well as Iberian lynx, there are also otters, wild boar, mouflon and red deer. The mountains also hold a large population of griffon vulture, as well as good numbers of the rare cinereous vulture and Spanish imperial eagle.
   • We'll explore these habitats slowly, watching for tracks and signs of lynx, and hoping for a sighting. But even if we are not lucky with lynx, there is plenty of Spanish wildlife to see in this wonderful habitat.

5. Day 8 Transfer to Seville and fly back to the UK

All prices are per person and include:

• Services of the naturalist leader
• Flights
• Transfers
• Accommodation
• All meals
• Guided activities
• 2nd leader subject to minimum numbers