Tuesday, June 25, 2013
Picos de Europa Day 1- Monday 27th May
So after my sojourn in sunny Barcelona, I handled my case, which had started to fall apart, back to the airport and onto the short flight to Asturias airport, where I met my fellow treckers- 6 chaps and another lady- and our guide, Juan. We were to spend our first night in luxury at a really posh hotel but I was rather disappointed to see that the sun had completely disappeared and had been replaced with mist and drizzle... I hoped that it would improve!
The next morning I jumped out of bed, eagerly pulled the curtain back to reveal... mist. It had been raining the night before, which was a bit of a shock as I had been expecting to see a bit of sun! Our day's itinerary for today was to walk up from Covadonga Lakes to the Refugio Vegarredonda and then onto the Ordiales viewpoint, which Juan assured us is stunning- in clear weather... unfortunately for us it wasn't clear...
Stopping on the way to the lakes to see the impressive cathedral of Basilica of Santa María la Real of Covadonga with its impressive rock cut hermitage of Santa Maria, the tops of the mountains had disappeared into mist.
We drove upwards for miles along a windy, twisty road which I believe is used quite a lot in the Spanish Cycle Race. Cows roam free range, with large bells around their necks, and don't seem to have any road sense at all! Reaching the lakes, we turned off along a dirt track which led to a car park. Juan and his wife Sonya gave us our packed lunches and we set off up the path towards the refuge.
Traffic Jam!
Walking Towards The Cloud
Unfortunately we were soon walking into the cloud and could see very little. Juan produced a guide book and showed us a photo of the view we should have been able to see in front of us... not sure it helped any!
After a couple of hours walking we reached the refuge. Half of the group decided to go up a little more towards the snow line, but as there was no possibility of a view, the rest of us decided to stay put at the refuge, open up our mess tins, have lunch and cups of coffee.
Going down the same way, it was some time before we started to have any kind of view again, although I did snap these chaps;
Once back at the cars, we stopped at the hotel to collect our things before heading to Sotres, and the hotel which was to be our base for the rest of the week. This proved to be a charming cosy and friendly hotel owned by Sonya's family- Hotel Rural Casa Cipriano.
The next morning I jumped out of bed, eagerly pulled the curtain back to reveal... mist. It had been raining the night before, which was a bit of a shock as I had been expecting to see a bit of sun! Our day's itinerary for today was to walk up from Covadonga Lakes to the Refugio Vegarredonda and then onto the Ordiales viewpoint, which Juan assured us is stunning- in clear weather... unfortunately for us it wasn't clear...
Stopping on the way to the lakes to see the impressive cathedral of Basilica of Santa María la Real of Covadonga with its impressive rock cut hermitage of Santa Maria, the tops of the mountains had disappeared into mist.
Unfortunately we were soon walking into the cloud and could see very little. Juan produced a guide book and showed us a photo of the view we should have been able to see in front of us... not sure it helped any!
After a couple of hours walking we reached the refuge. Half of the group decided to go up a little more towards the snow line, but as there was no possibility of a view, the rest of us decided to stay put at the refuge, open up our mess tins, have lunch and cups of coffee.
Going down the same way, it was some time before we started to have any kind of view again, although I did snap these chaps;
Labels: Covadonga, Picos de Europa, Sotres
