Friday started with the internet down, wet rain falling down and a massacre down in the shower cubicle. At 9:30am, as everyone else was collecting their bread from reception, we checked out and set off. We were both apprehensive about riding a cable car and standing in a damp cloud, but as we drove up the road past Espinama and Pido to Fuente De, the clouds lifted, the sun came out and the sky turned blue. We bought return tickets for the Teleférico and didn’t have to wait long for the twenty-person cable car to sail through the sky, straight at the cliff face and then gently land in the top station. The views of the Picos de Europa from the base station were fantastic and when we reached the top station………. well, I’ve run out of superlatives. It was beautiful up there and we could not believe that we had picked a day with such perfect weather to be standing there.
There was still snow tucked into corners and quite a bit of it when we reached La Vueltona. I didn’t fancy getting my boots too wet, so we turned back to Horcadina de Covarrobles, the pass at the base of Peña Olvidada which is a magnificent 2,406m high.
We thought we could see a man standing on one of the incredibly straight sided peaks and couldn’t work out how he could have got there. I thought about waving to him, but it seemed a rather precarious spot for him to be standing. We decided he must have rock climbed up from the other side and then got the binoculars out. It was not a man, it was a massive Buitre Leonardo, also known as a griffon vulture. They have a wingspan of more than 2.5m and look amazing when they are circling over the mountain tops; they hardly ever flap their wings, they just float and glide and make you wish you too could fly like that.
From Horcadina de Covarrobles we hiked round into the next valley past the Chalet Real and on to Hotel Aliva, a long continual downhill walk. My knees were a bit wobbly by the time we arrived and I was ready to sit down and tuck in to a tasty lunch. Play safe today; just have a cheese and ham sandwich, Laura. It turned out to be a monster; half a baguette with a whole packet of ham and a massive slice of cheese. They are definitely catering to hungry hikers there!
We took a bit of a shortcut on the walk back uphill, just to make it steeper, but shorter. We were both puffing at the top, but it really was a beautiful hike, in both directions. The camera never went back in to its case. The only alarming moment was when we disturbed three fluffy horses who charged straight in our direction. Just as I was saying “should we run right or left”, they ran past us and farted in our general direction!!! Friendly!!!
We reckon we walked about 10kms in the four hours we were up there, not huge, but enough for me nowadays and it has to have been in one of the most beautiful parts of Spain.
The drive back down through Potes and on through Tama, followed the Rio Deva and we continued to follow it almost all the way to the coast. We seemed to dip in and out of Cantabria and Asturias, through the fabulously narrow Desfiladero de la Hermida, another ravine that wiggled its way for 20km, this time through the eastern edge of the Picos Europa.
After our long hike and then a tough drive, Rodney looked pretty tired when we finally checked in to Camping Colombres at Noriega. It’s a really pretty campsite with free wi-fi, new bathrooms and a swimming pool with gorgeous views back towards the scenic Picos.
It made sense to stay put the next day; the sun was shining, we got the washing done and dried, swam in the pool and gazed at the mountains instead of walking amongst them. We’ll sort out the wi-fi on Monday……
