Tablas de Daimiel National Park

Tablas de Daimiel is a wetland on the La Mancha plain in the province of Ciudad Real, an otherwise dry landscape, and at around 3,000 hectares it is the smallest of Spain’s fifteen national parks. It covers part of the municipalities of Daimiel and Villarrubia de los Ojos. The protected area is being extended into neighbouring dryland farming to improve the condition of the wetland itself, which depends on water that agriculture also wants. Boardwalks carry the routes over the shallows, and the interest is entirely in the birds, best in the cooler months, when the water is highest.