circular tour around the Santillan reservoir

Cattle routes, a bicycle path and comfortable tracks around a great reservoir

Leaving Manzanares el Real in the south, the tour starts at the bottom of the Santillana reservoir, where you cross a bridge and observe how the river vegetation of mainly willow trees, border the water's edge.

You quickly climb along the Cordel de Sant Samburiel, a cattle route  which goes through a typical mediterranean wood, full of cork oaks, juniper and rockroses.  Some of the curves along the path allows you to enjoy the spectacular landscape: the peaks and the valleys of the Serra de Guadarrama dominated by the Maliciosa and the Cuerda Larga peaks.

The climb isn't long and a short descent soon takes you to the Canyada Real Segoviana, one of the most important cattle routes on the Iberian Peninsula, of 500km between La Rioja and Badajoz.

At this point you turn left and continue downhill following the stone wall which guides the path and serves as a border between la Canyada and the cork oak meadows where the cattle find shelter and a source of food.

With hardly any effort you arrive at the medievel bridge of Batán over the Manzanares river.  It takes its name from the old existing fulling mill upsteam.

The tour now continues north-east between pastures where the cattle, who have made the town of Colmenar Viejo famous, quietly graze.  It's important to pay attention to the GPS indications here as there are a series of crossroads and turnings to take you to the bicycle path which links Madrid and Soto del Real.

You take this path to cycle easily and to enjoy the landscape of the high peaks, their valleys full of vegetation and the calm waters of the Santillana reservoir.  You arrive at Soto del Real without any effort at Soto Real and after leaving it behind you begin the last part of the tour.  A wide and comfortable track following the wall which borders the Devesa Boyal meadows and leads to the resting place of Casa de los Berros, where you continue on the GR - 10.

Arriving at the M-608 road, cross very carefully due to the heavy traffic and go back to Manzaneres el Real on the little path that goes around the reservoir of Santillana.  You can stop in one of the bird watching hides to see some of the biggest colonies that rest and feed on its waters