The Dehesa is crossed by innumerable ancient animal trails.
–––
These paths have been walked for thousands of years by many animals, some now extinct and lost to this place, except in memory.
They sinuously crisscross the mountain with a deep animate intelligence, born from an intimate two way relationship with the Earth.
These are not mere random meanderings, the result of non-sentient footfalls, rather they are guided by the being of the Dehesa itself, as it creates a living topographical intelligence for the animals to find their way.
The animals in turn help to shape and soften the contours, thus this reciprocal way finding becomes a living calligraphy, a language of movement that changes with season, weather and time.
It is the idiom of the mountain creating its own autobiographical ecology.
Photo: Maquis at Saladaviciosa. Courtesy of the author.