GOC’s Adventure Out group made their third visit to the Picos de Europa National Park, in Northern Spain, on the borders of Asturias, Cantanbria and Leon, for a week’s walking in Spain’s only inhabited nature reserve, offering 17 of GOC’s travellers a unique experience in an area where rural life and nature have co-existed in this unique environment for centuries.
Our base for the week, was the village of Sotres, a village of 1000 metres, at the end of 16km of sinuous road from Cabrales. Sotres is home to nearly 200 inhabitants who are a hardy mixture of farmers, adventurers and entrepreneurs who maintain a long tradition of mountaineering, animal husbandry, crafts and artisanal products such as sausages, meats and cheeses. It also provides an excellent base and gateway to the eastern, central and western massifs of the Picos ranges.
Our hospitality, guiding, accommodation, meals, wines and transfers were provided by the inimitable Juanjo and his even more formidable back-up team provided by his wife Sonia, his son-in-law (chef), daughter (business support) and a few other relatives and friends thrown in for good measure.
Juanjo charmed and endeared us all for his hard work, commitment, safety always and a great sense of humour. He has also developed a great affection for GOC and its members and considers us one of his prized guests each time we visit.
Though our adventure began and concluded, mostly, in Bilbao due to flight convenience from UK, the rest of the time was spent climbing the Naranjo de Bulnes or Picu Urriellu, famous for its 2,529 metres, though we only topped the Refugio Vega de Urriellu at 1960 metres, given the remaining 500 metres is a technical climb.
We stayed overnight in Potes, a medieval town – having walked from Sotres, through the Invernales del Texu Valley, which borders Asturias and Cantabria, the day before continuing with a visit to the Compania Lebaniega winery and Santo Toribio de Liebana monastery the following day, before returning to Sotres, where we finished the 2 day adventure off with a hike up to one of the nearby mountainous saddles, descending via what can only be described as a mud chute.
We walked the Cares Gorge, a 24km round trip between Poncebos (Asturias) and Cain (Leon). The gorge let's you walk among peaks over 2000 metres tall, along an imposing ravine carved out, presumably by the River Cares, through tunnels carved into the rock and over bridges allowing you to cross from one side of the gorge to the next. A tough hiking day, for sure, but spectacular
The second half of the week hit poor weather – rain, high winds and even snow on the very high tops. Most of us felt quite at home in the unseasonable ‘Blighty’ weather and though some adjustments had to be made to the original plans, we still managed to get in hikes through spectacular alpine like scenery, visiting old shepherd villages and settlements, extraordinary local fauna, pass waterfalls, cheese caves, and marvelled at some of the wildlife including vultures, sheep and goats with tinkering bells throughout the landscape plus the happiest and most content looking cows, basking in the mountain air and sunshine.
On a few occasions, we even witnessed the Chamois and Ibex clinging spectacularly to the mountain slopes, tops and cliff edges. The area is also known for its brown bears and Iberian wolves. Although none were seen whilst hiking, a few members reckon they heard wolves patrolling the village in the wee early hours of the morning and being imbued with copious amounts of table wine the night before had nothing to do with it!
I think it’s fair to say that everyone thoroughly enjoyed the week. Tired at the end of the week yes, over-fed and slightly dazed by the mountain air and wine yes, our group, nevertheless, were dropped off by Juanjo at Bilbao airport, a week later, feeling spent physically but very happy and content with the joy and fun of being with each other but also having tasted and experienced a very special part of Europe and Spain.
