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| View from our Room |
Last night we woke up at 3 AM to lightening and thunder and a bit of rain. The storm moved off but the lightening continued to put in on quite a show! But in the morning the sky had bits of blue, so we took off to look for hiking trails in the Park.
We dumped a bag of laundry off at Recepción and picked up a cute little Parador backpack containing our "Pic Nic" and set off up the CL-627 north. The highway was lined with snow poles which is why this parador is only open spring through fall - not enough snow for skiing, but too much for tourism.
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| Mallow species |
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| Lotus species |
We quickly found an overlook for the Senda Peña del Oso (Bear's Rock Trail) with carefully designated parking for cars and bikes and took off on a road through the woods. We reached a meadow backed by a large limestone outcropping containing a small stone hut with a thatched roof in which farmers used to overnight while their oxen fed and rested in green grass, before returning to work in the fields.
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| The Farmers' Hut |
Unfortunately, no Spanish Brown Bears! They are pretty scarce, but it would be great to see one! This area is famous for butterflies and we saw quite a few, but birding is very difficult as the birds rarely show themselves. We were surrounded by song but hardly saw any movement.
We walked a mile out, returned to the car, and drove on to the village of Vañes to another well-signed trail head, El Rablón, the big oak. We hiked through woods of scrub oaks and meadows full of wild flowers, heard a bell ringing and passed a herd of very stocky horses: one stallion, several mares and some cute foals. We found a well-built shelter for hikers and apparently also for horses as there was a lot of manure inside!
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| El Rablón |
The trail became quite steep, the trees larger and we finally saw El Roblón, the big oak, an 800-years old, quite battered, but still beautiful tree!
It was looking more like rain so we returned to the car (about a two and a half mile round trip) and opened our "Pic Nic" bag which contained fruit juice, chocolate cookies and a delicious baguette full of large chunks of tuna, grilled red peppers and olive oil which we rapidly consumed!
We continued up the road through an incredibly narrow stone canyon and up to the Puerto Piedrasluengas, a very scenic mountain pass with a hazy view today of Los Picos de Europa, a spectacular coastal mountain range that we visited many years ago.
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| Well-signed Hiking Trails |
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It was almost 4 PM so we returned to the parador and found our laundry neatly folded in a charming basket! We napped and then at 7 took the elevator down to the bar and terrace, and although it was raining, found the tables under the overhang were full of Sunday family parties. We went into the bar and had a rum & coke, for me, and a sensible straight coke for Bob.
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| "Candy Cane " Orchid |
At 8:45 we returned to the dining room, full of the Brits, as the locals seems to have gone home. We weren't too hungry, refused the bread and split an appetizer of leeks and roast peppers with cheese sauce, then duck with prunes and orange
sauce for me, while Bob had roast veal and veggies. .We split a chocolate dessert and a bottle of red wine (our idea of holding back!) and returned to our room listening to the much-needed rain outside.
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| Through a very narrow Mountain Gorge |
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