Lake Preola and Gorghi Tondi - Mazara del Vallo
A good friend is worth his weight in gold: If you want to visit the Lake Preola and Gorghi Tondi Integral Nature Reserve you have to get near to it.
The hidden treasure...
Suddenly, submerged in a valley that hides it, the Reserve appears: a series of small lakes that together cover an area of about 335 hectares from Mazara del Vallo toward Torretta Granitola, parallel to the coast for one kilometer.
Proceding from Mazara the first lake you see is the Murana dry lake, then the lake Preola, the larger, and finally the three circular bodies of water, the so-called Gorghi (High, Medium and Low), surrounded by a rich marshy vegetation and calcareous ridges covered by maquis in the southern part. The area is a karst depression where the rain and the time erodes the chalky soil creating these natural lakes that are now surrounded by a luxuriant marshy vegetation.
Itineraries - You can visit the Reserve by previous reservation all through the year but undoubtedly the best period is during spring, when the vegetation blooms after winter break and you can see many birds as well.
The wwf, which runs the reserve, created a Visitors Center with a multimedia room and two trails leading to two observatories on the Lake Preola and Low Gorgo.
Disabled people can also go to the observatory of Low Gorgo after a 180 meters trail through the maquis.
From the observatory on the lake Preola can observe many species of aquatic birds, especially in spring when some of them nests in the reeds of the shallow water of lake Preola.
The main trail starts where the Gorghi Tondi provincial road go through an embankment in the middle of the three rounded Karst lakes (the Upper and Middle ones on the left and the Lower one, on the right).
How to get there
From the motorway A/29 (Palermo – Mazara): drive to the junction to go to Campobello di Mazara and then continue along the SS 115 towards Trapani about 57 mile. Then go onto provincial road no. 85 and follow signs to get there.
From Mazara del Vallo: at the end of Via Castelvetrano get onto the SS 115 towards Campobello di Mazara. Before the viaduct get onto the provincial road no. 85 and follow the indcations.
Administrative body
WWF Italy
Via Maccagnone 2/b – Mazara del Vallo
Tel: 0923 934055
For further information: www.wwfpreola.it FLORA & FAUNA
Flora – The Lake Preola and Gorghi Tondi Reserve is characterized by a rich vegetation. You can find maquis even in the calcretes: the Palestine oak, a very rare endemic shrubby species, the Ilex, especially in the Catarro wood, the Lentisk, an evergreen tree with cluster flowers, and the Bush germander with pale blue flowers.
Near the lakes there is the typical Mediterranean vegetation of marshy areas: the Reed grass, the Bulrush and the Reed-mace. Spring exalts the different colours of Wild orchids, Anemones, Asphodels, Daisies, Taraxacums and of the beautiful Sweet scabious with bright colours. Fauna – Rare species and new sightings ...
The reserve provides food and shelter for many species of birds: the Stilt-bird flying with its legs backward, the Little bittern, a protected species whose wings have brown spots, the Ferruginous duck, an endangered species, the Glossy ibis with a long and curved beak . Among the reeds you can see the Purple herons and the most common Grey herons. Among the plants you can find the Hoopoe with curved beak and a fan-shaped crest. The Western marsh harrier, the Buzzard and the Kestrel are the most common birds of prey. In the water you can see the male Wild duck that can be recognized by green metal head, the Bald-coot with a black feathering and a white beak, the Dubchick whose Italian name derives from its habit to look for food plunging into the water, the Red-crested pochard, whose male specimen has a golden-reddish feathering of the head and the Great crested grebe with a double crest. In the Lake Preola there are Spoonbills, Egrets and flocks of cranes coming from Africa and directed to Europe to nest. It is also very important to highlight the sporadic sighting of the very rare Marbled duck. On the surface of the water in spring you can see the Pond turtles, a species protected at the European level that can be found only in the last freshwater environments of the Mediterranean regions. In the Lake Preola and Gorghi Tondi Reserve there is also a new species of Emys Orbicularis, the European Pond turtle once very common but living now only in those few wetlands indispensable for its survival. Recently, near Lake Murana the guardians of the reserve saw a Purple swamphen, unmistakable because of its blue-violaceous plumage. It has been away from those areas since early ‘50s. This discovery is important because the Purple swamphen was the subject of a reintroduction project in some protected areas of eastern Sicily. This sighting represents the farthest one from the area where it was reintroduced and allow to study, in an unexpected way, its behaviour. In the rich maquis you can also find a lot of foxes, rabbits and porcupines.
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