Asturias trip report - 5

Our penultimate day in Asturias saw us bid farewell to Sergio and Paloma at the Hotel rural Los Riegos and travel back to stay again at the Hotel Posada del Valle. The journey detoured off the N-625 to take in some viewpoints of the Picos de Europa massif and then a drive through the spectacular Beyos gorge which was an experience best described as interesting. At the Hotel Posada del Valle, we unpacked and then enquired about two walks I had noted in the hotels itinerary of self guided walks in the Parc National de los Picos de Europa. The hotel staff helpfully warned that the access road to the Lakes of Covadonga was now closed to public cars until 20.00 hrs and an arrival just before sunset. The weather forecast was depressingly blue skies, sunshine and decidedly warm.

The first walk was along the Rio Casaño upstream of La Molina, through a by now obligatory limestone/dolomite gorge, past some caves where a small leaved lime was growing and then through what appeared to be an orchard of sweet chestnut trees. Many of the trees were pollards of some age with hollowed trunks and bill berry/ferns growing as epiphytes, I was suitably impressed.

Wood Saxifrage was also in flower in contrast to Redes Natural Park where its presence was signified only by the distinctive the leaves.

Wood Saxifrage (Saxifraga mertensiana)

Some apparently derelict agricultural buildings added an insight into the history of the valley and the craftsmanship of rustic architecture. The pale fencing around the buildings appeared to be sweet chestnut.

We then departed to the next destination of the Lakes of Covadonga, waited at Covadonga for the road to be opened to public traffic, joined the procession of traffic for the ~12km journey and arrived at the main car park shortly before sunset, cloud on the western horizon nullified any hope of quality light or alpenglow. It would be reasonable to suggest that the Lakes of Covadonga are a very, very popular destination.


A wander away from the crowds and I chanced upon an exposure of karst geomorphology.

With the crowds dissipating after sunset an image was made of the peaks in a small pool.

That was the end of the photography as next day was travelling back to Bilbao and a return to the UK. To sum up I was very impressed with what I saw of Asturias, the welcoming nature of the Spanish and the obvious respect for their landscape by the complete absence of litter. The autumn potential for landscape photography would be high.