Maneli Ridge

This facility is located in theDoñana Natural Area, in Reserve Zone A of the natural park. It is located between the towns of Matalascañas and Mazagón, in the Acantilado del Asperillo Natural Monument, declared as such due to its high geological and ecological value.

The current walkway of the Cuesta Maneli path has been built to replace the infrastructure that was destroyed by the Las Peñuelas fire in the summer of 2017. This equipment allows us to walk along the Asperillo dune until we reach the cliff. It has a length of 1371 metres. Access is free. From the viewpoint, there are stairs that lead down to the beach.

Through this itinerary that crosses the dunes until reaching a viewpoint and an immense virgin beach, the visitor can learn about the importance of the vegetation in the formation of this ecosystem. Thanks to their roots, the moving dunes are stabilised, settling the sands and preventing them from shifting.

You can see a variety of small plants that have managed to adapt to the extreme conditions of this area, resisting the constant winds and drought conditions, for example, the barron, a pioneer in the colonisation of sandy soils, or the camarina, a species exclusive to the Atlantic coast of the peninsula that has a small white fruit known as the pearl of the dunes or other more exclusive species such as the linaria, as well as scattered feet of pines, junipers and junipers. The presence of animals can be seen in the footprints they leave on the sands and from the cliffs we can observe terns, gulls, plovers and sandpipers scurrying along the beach.

Many species have strategies for surviving a fire, such as resprouting and producing resistant seeds. Thus, although its situation is extremely fragile, with the help of restoration work, a large part of the native vegetation of the Asperillo is recovering.