Left Portugal on Friday intending to go to Seville, but were told we must go to a place called El Rocio so after spending the first night back in Spain on a nice beach site at Isla Christina we went there for the weekend. It has a campsite on the edge of town.
El Rocio is a weird mix of weekend retreat, religious pilgrimage site and a Wild West town with a weekday population of a few hundred. All the 'roads' are sand and shingle (no problem with double yellow lines here) and people ride by on horses, in 4x4, pickup truck, pony and trap or anything. There is the occasional gunshot and we found a load of 12 bore cartridges just scattered in the main street. The following week the place would be invaded by tens of thousands of people to witness/join a procession carrying an image of the Virgin Mary from from the church El Rocio to the nearby town of Admonte to celebrate some miracle or other.
The reason for being so strange is that it is very cheap area and thousands of Sevillians(?) have weekend apartments so it just goes mad at the weekend. Its also on the edge of nature reserve and not far from coast so its much cooler in summer - but its the strangest place we have ever been.
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