Wildflowers, Birds & Butterflies Walks
with Teresa Farino

Dates: 12th - 25th May 2012
Price: £100pp for a week or £25pp per day
Accommodation: Book your accommodation separately - choose from
half board in Posada El Corcal or stay in one of our self catering apartments

Purple Vipers Bugloss
(Echium plantagineum)

In addition to our usual walking holidays in the Picos de Europa, Collett's are delighted to offer two specialist weeks of walks in the mountain flora and fauna with the well known British naturalist, Teresa Farino.  You can choose to join Teresa, who will host your time out amidst the sensational flowers, birds and butterflies of the Picos de Europa, for a full week or just for a day or two, but places are limited so booking is highly recommended.

Teresa has lived in the Picos de Europa since 1986 and is passionate about all aspects of natural history, particularly the wildflowers and butterflies of her home patch, where she has been leading wildlife holidays for almost twenty-five years.  In addition to contributing to magazines such as BBC Wildlife and British Wildlife, she is probably best known as the author of the popular Sunflower Guide 'Landscapes of the Picos de Europa', and Oxford University Press' 'Travellers' Nature Guide: Spain'. Her most recent book is the lavishly illustrated 'Wild Spain', published in 2009 by New Holland Press.

From May to July, the hay meadows of the Picos de Europa are simply glorious: some of the richest temperate grasslands in the world, literally teeming with orchids and butterflies. Add to this the floral and faunal delights of the alpine rock gardens and the diversity of woodland types in the surrounding valleys - ranging from Mediterranean evergreen forests to cool, humid swathes of beech and sessile oak, from mixed deciduous canopies of ash, wych elm and small-leaved lime to extensive tracts of Pyrenean oak - and you have the recipe for the perfect natural history holiday.

During each week, Teresa will visit all the major habitats of the south-eastern corner of the Picos de Europa, with an emphasis on the haymeadows and rock-gardens of both limestone and siliceous bedrock, but also including some of the rivers and gorges, acid heathlands, deciduous forests of Beech and Pyrenean Oak and more Mediterranean, evergreen woodlands and dry grasslands.

You can choose your accommodation separately - from half board or B&B at the delightful Posada El Corcal (prices from £460 per person per week) or one of our self catering apartments (prices from £280 per person per week).  Non-participating partners are welcome and can enjoy the other options of a Collett’s walking holiday in the normal way.  Click here to visit our Picos de Europa website.

For more information on the Wildflower, Birds and Butterflies Walks click here or to make an enquiry click here or call 01799 513331.