What I love about this river, what really turns me on about it is that it’s so close to the edge. It just shouldn’t be here, running through its parched valley right at the foot of Spain, so close to Africa, so starved of water for the vast majority of its lifetime. You always feel with it that any period of weather just that little bit more warm and drought ridden could signal its downfall and that of the fish that swim within it. Here, global warming could prove terminal. But, it’s early September and the water now is just about perfect, well, it’s fine. It could do with an extra three inches or so and a fraction more push to it but that’s being pernickety in a land where it’s amazing there’s such a vibrant stream anyway.

John Bailey prepares for a group trip down to Spain.