Don Feidner

Last Update:   17 March 2013

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Ferry to Coria del Rio

Fisherman on the Rio Guadalquivil with a Carp

Sometimes it is difficult to find a place to camp. From the camping place at Dos Hermanas near Seville to El Rocio Camping, it was over 100 kilometers. Therefore, we had to improvise and find a place somewhere in the wilderness. After many miles of swamps and canals with only wet ground and small brush, we finally saw a small forest at an intersection. We pushed our bikes into the forest and finally found a flat spot next to a cactus fence under the eucalyptus trees. Of course, we named it Camp Cactalyptus.

We said, “nobody will ever find us here.” 10 minutes after we pitched the tent, the owner found us while walking through the woods with his wife. He appeared nervous when he saw us, so I walked up to him with a big smile and greeted him. “Buenos Tardes” I said and continued to explain to him that we were tired and needed a place to sleep for the night. “Solo una noche?” (“Just one night?”) he asked. “Si” I confirmed it and he was happy. We exchanged a bit more friendly chatter and said good night.

I have yet to meet someone who wanted me to leave when I slept on their property. If I had known where to ask, I would have asked. There was no “keep out” sign, so I had assumed it was public property.

After Seville, we rode the bikes about 15 miles to Coria del Rio. We took the ferry across to the town, rode south out of the city into the Doñana National Park, to Isla Mayor, El Rocio, Matalascanas, Huelva, Isla Christina and finally to Ayamonte on the Spanish-Portuguese border.

Coria del Río is a small town near Seville, on the shores of Guadalquivir River.
It is popularly known because there are some descendants of the first-ever Japanese official envoy to Spain. Early in the 17th Century Daimyo Date Masamune of Sendai sent a delegation led by Hasekura Tsunenaga to Europe.
An embassy was then set up and six samurai stayed on. Approximately 700 of Coria's 25,000 residents use the surname Japón (originally Hasekura de Japón), identifying them as their descendants. The name first appeared on an official document in 1646. Some babies born within the town are known to display the mongolian spot which is common in Asians.

A statue of Hasekura Tsunenaga was donated to the city by Japan in 1992 and stands watch over the river.

First Possibility to Cross the River -
70 Miles from its Mouth in the Atlantic

Happy to Arrive in Camp Cactalyptus

A most impressive building, the Hermitage of El Rocío (Ermita de El Rocío) is a hermitage at El Rocío in the countryside of Almonte, Province of Huelva, Andalusia, Spain. The hermitage is home to the Virgin of El Rocío, a small, much-venerated carved wood statue, and is the destination of an annual procession/pilgrimage on the second day of the Pentecost, known as the Romería de El Rocío, connected to the veneration of the Virgin of El Rocío; in recent years the Romería has brought together roughly a million pilgrims each year.

Although there has been a hermitage on this site for centuries, the present hermitage building was designed by architects Antonio Delgado y Roig and Alberto Balbontín de Orta, designed in 1961 and built in stages over the next two decades.

When you arrive in El Rocio, you feel like you have landed in a wild west town. There are no paved roads in the entire city and horses abound.

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