In Search of The Source of The ... Odiel.

  That's right, chief. He means
little old moi.
Courtesy: Wikipedia

Not me, boyo, the other one.

Courtesy: Wikpedia

As the title suggests, today's offering is about how I (and thousands before me) reached the source of the Río Odiel, only (for me) to discover that, like the Nile, it has more than one source. Unlike Richard Burton (☚not that one!) the 19th-century explorer ☛  and translator of saucy literature, I decided not to press on to find its ultimate source, I wrote to the Andalusian Cartographical Service instead - and got a very nice reply from one of its chief cartographers solving the mystery.

But what mystery? I hear you cry in your, er, thousands?

Pery Moo & Carmelo on Mastiff patrol.

Well, in a nutshell the mystery is thus: near my mountain fastness there is a campsite, Camping Aracena, and a park and picnic area called Marimateos. It's a great place to go with the family, or with the dogs and let them all off their leashes. They have a right good larf chasing each other or playing with the campsite's friendly mastiff. Imagine, two Teckels (aka Dachsunds) and a Bodeguero (Spanish rat catcher) chasing a mastiff and trying to jump up and bite his tail.

A rather source-y claim, I must say.

By the side of this litter-strewn beauty spot (why are people so inconsiderate?) there runs a babbling brook which the dogs adore. Yet further upstream there is a spring which gushes tooth-numbingly cold, potable water all year round into said stream. Above this spring is the legend "Nacimiento del Río Odiel" or source of the River Odiel.

Carmelo inspects the source of the Odiel

Yes! The eagle-eyed will already have noticed! If the spring gushes into an already-existing stream, how can it be the source of the River Odiel?

... Yes, but Percy, is it really  the source?

This has given me more than one sleepless night over the last few months.

I have asked far and wide, yet to a man even the experts in local lore, legend, dream and pun in Higuera de la Sierra's Bar Manolete (great tapas!) can only give this concise, expert opinion: ni puta idea, or in English; this is indeed  a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside  an enigma.                                                                                                  

Blas the Infant ponders this and 
other Andalusian questions

So I emailed Agustín, a friend (and former student of mine) in the Andalusian Cartographical Service and received a very simple reply - convention. In the past someone said it was the source and thus it will remain until another, more intrepid explorer, or indeed John Mills himself comes pluckily along with with his sleds and ponies to prove that the source is to be found elsewhere and that no challenge is too much for The British Exploring Man. So now I have my homework and Agustín his revenge! 

Conclusion? Naaaaaah.

  

I, however, am not going to be like Agustín and conscientiously do my homework. No, no! I am going to take the dogs to Marimateo and smugly watch people as they fill their bottles with spring water from the source of the Odiel, while I all the time know it isn't the source. Crikey, what a smashing secret! Would I be the killjoy who turns this spring into just another spring and, by doing so, remove a small part of the pleasure of visiting this place of non-religious pilgrimage and imbibing its waters? No. Not I. We already have more than enough petty-minded killjoys spoiling things for us.

And now, before the rather bitter footnote, some more photos of Marimteos, all taken at about 20.30 on 19/09/2018: