Advertisement
1. Picos de Europa
When Spanish mariners returned from their early voyages to the Americas, the first sight of land they had from far out to sea was that of the giant mountain summits just behind the northern Spanish coastline of Asturias & Cantabria. They called them ‘Picos de Europa’, and in 1918 became Spain’s first National Park. We were naturally drawn to these mountains, although there was also some anxiety about driving ‘Django’, our new to us, but rather bigger than our previous camper, through the mountain passes. However, we had our trusty guidebooks, and even a ‘Back roads of Spain’ driving tour, what could possibly go wrong?
The gateway to the mountains from the East is Potes our first stop, and a visit to a fantastic information centre. The pictures show some of the drama, the drive was spectacular, and the mountains truly awesome. I’ve no idea how Kim remained so cool, perhaps it was because as we are right hand drive, I was the one in the middle of the road looking at the oncoming vehicles and shutting my eyes! But the overhanging rocks and spaghetti like turns were indeed a challenge. The final straw was
a sporadic handbrake failure just as we arrived at the overnight Aire (parking for motorhomes), in the middle of the mountains at the remote but wonderfully picturesque Posada de Valdeon. It was Sunday evening, there was nothing to do but park up and enjoy where we were.
The village is a sort of staging post for many of the walkers and climbers who take on extreme hikes. I felt we had had enough excitement for one day and opted for a wander around the historic buildings in the village, we really liked their quaint box like sheds on legs, Algunas horreos, they apparently were built to store grain. Back at the camp site enjoying the peace of our surrounding mountains, and glorious sunshine when I heard the familiar sound of a helicopter. First we had the local air ambulance (H135), it was great to see the crew charming the locals whilst waiting for their patient. However more thrilling was the rescue helicopter (H145) we watched hovering above the high peaks retrieving the injured climber, then bringing them down to metres away from the air ambulance. So, it was someone’s worst day, the crews were very busy, I kept my
distance and let them get on with the job, I did of course wave them off!
A beautiful peaceful night in the mountains listening to owls and other animals, yes they do have brown bear but I wasn’t lucky enough to see one. Checking the brakes before we left, all seemed ok, the burning smell of yesterday had subsided, so we continued our tour around the peaks. Kim seemed to be enjoying the challenging drive, and I loved the scenery.
We drove back to civilisation, and headed for the Escuela Asturania de Piraguismo, a canoe school on the banks of the river Sella. Every year there is an international competition called ‘Descent of the Sella’ (descendodelsella.com), an exciting canoe race. We weren’t feeling competitive, but we do love canoeing so we signed up for a trip of a couple of hours. I thought I heard the young lady say go to the ‘slide’, we duly walked to where she pointed and behind a wall were several young men literally throwing canoes with people in them down a long steep slide. So, we got in and slid! Wow that was cool! We are reasonably experienced canoeists, but this experience
was certainly not the Norfolk Broads! There were many ‘mini rapids’ to combat, and some serious rocks, but it was huge fun!
So where next? ….. let’s follow the pilgrims.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.107s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 18; qc: 64; dbt: 0.0484s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Jo
non-member comment
Fabulous!
Thanks for the Blog. The trip looks amazing and you both look like you’re having a great time. I will follow with interest. Looking forward to more eating challenges. Baby eels???