Day 52 – to Outier, Somiedo National Park

Twenty days since any rain, but it was a rainy morning today. At this time of year the temperature drops considerably also as a front comes through, it was a maximum of 7C this morning.

I finished my William Boyd novel, which was wonderful, and by that time, the rain had cleared to showers. Roja and I walked the Via Verde into the village and picked some local cheese up for lunch. It was to be a shorter day out than usual, just a couple of hours, which suited my hip/leg which was having a bad day.

My original plan had been to stay a couple of days here at the old railway station, but the rain, which is forecast to be on and off for the next few days, wasn’t as heavy as predicted.

Before the next section of the course, I stocked up at the bigger supermarket in Villafranca. I don’t expect to be near a town for a week or more now.

Then I headed into Somiedo National Park, a strikingly different landscape than around the Sil river valley where I have been the last few days. The Sil valley has had a lot of mining over the years, and most of the tracks carved around the hills are due to transport in those days. They do make for good mountain biking, but nonetheless have scarred the mountain, almost in the same way that ski runs do.

The Somiedo National Park is one of a number of Biosphere Reserves in the Cantabrians. Amongst the stark bare rock are high grassy pastures which are farmed sustainably throughout the year. Somiedo has the highest population density of brown bears in Iberia, due to wildlife corridors being created with appropriate vegetation so that tourism can coexist with them.

The park is used to receiving plenty of tourists in the season, and at weekends from about now onwards, though it could be this late blast of wintery weather may put all but the hardy off.

The entrance to the park from the south is quite spectacular. This (above) is the little village of La Peral nestled up at 1350 metres.

I passed through the Park’s main town, Pola de Somiedo, down again at 750 metres, then headed east on a road that climbs steeply through hairpins, to 1250 metres. I’m parked at the end of the road, the village of Outier. The showers were heavier now, and wintery, but between them we got in an hour wander around, primarily to get familiarised with the track I want to hike tomorrow. Just as we got back the meatiest of the showers hit, leaving a covering of snow on the ground for an hour or so.

There are plenty of goats on the mountainside adjacent (see photo below), with a guy in a 4WD keeping a vague eye on them, but they also have about 6 dogs to look after them also. All of which are as friendly as ever, a little timid even.

It does seem an excellent time to visit the park.