WHEN you're based in a land-locked province, or your nearest beach is too packed, or you just want to explore the countryside, Spain is replete with natural 'swimming pools' which, at this time of year, are not just a godsend, but completely necessary. At a time when temperatures soar into the mid-30s and feel higher still, having a large body of water handy to chuck yourself in is sheer bliss.
Some of Spain's lakes, ponds, lagoons and rivers are totally natural, whilst others have been landscaped to give them a 'beachy' appearance, or just to make life easier for bathers – with steps, terraces, and sectioned-off areas for safety.
There's at least one in every province, but here are some of the nation's favourites.
Castilla y León
Head for the Sierra de Gredos mountain range in the province of Ávila, where you'll find numerous natural 'swimming pools' between the Los Caballeros lagoon and the river Tormes.
Also in the province of Ávila, the Arenas de San Pedro is a parkland-cum-inland beach, peaceful and green and perfect for a dip.
Or in the province of Burgos – after stopping at the city of the same name to see what is probably the world's most stunningly-beautiful cathedral – midway between the villages of Pedrosa de Tobalina and La Orden you'll find the 12-metre (39-foot) waterfalls named after the first of these (first picture, from Flickr), which supply a huge and beautiful pool of clean water perfect for summer bathing.
In the heart of a woodland, the rocky river path running through mossy banks offers plenty of shade as well as shallow water for paddling in the river Cambrones, in the province of Segovia – the Calderas, or pools, most popular with locals and visitors are the Guindo, Enmedio and La Negra.
Castilla-La Mancha
Letur, in the province of Albacete – not far to travel if you're on the Costa Blanca or in Murcia – is a small, man-made pool complete with steps and surrounded by trees, purpose-built for bathing, so you know it's going to be completely safe.
For a more 'countryside' feel, the thick grassland surrounding the Ruidera lagoons in the province of Ciudad Real, fed by small waterfalls, comes highly recommended, whilst the rocky Las Chorreras in the province of Cuenca, with its crystal-blue-grey waters, reminds one of the cave-pools, or cenotes, in eastern México.
In the same province, the Hoces de Cabriel, in and around the villages of Enguídanos, Villora and Minglanilla are a UNESCO bio-reserve and a huge, natural complex of pools of different sizes and depths, ranging from knee-deep to several metres, turquoise with a sandy floor and shrouded in mountain landscape with waterfalls – in fact, they look more like a scene from the tropics than from centre-eastern Spain.
Read more at thinkSPAIN.com