Safe Return Doubtful

I spent three days at the picturesque village of Tudanca, in the Saja-Besaya Natural Park, which gave excellent views over the Sierra de Peña Sagra, a range of sixteen kilometres in length above the Nansa valley. It is an excellent base for hiking and some really good MTB as well. Some of the longer days, for example an ascent of the highest mountain in the range, El Cornón at 2125 metres, would be best ascended with an eight kilometre ride in, getting up to 850 metres, before the ascent to the ridge. There is remnants of the last snowfall around, but not much, the route would have been possible even now in February. 

I opted to get up to 1200 metres by hiking the opposite side of the valley. These are greener hills, with high mountain pasture cross-crossed by tracks used by farmers going back hundreds of years, maybe even more. The summits here are all around that height, 1200 metres, and we managed to scale one of them quite easily, a round trip of about four hours, and fifteen kilometres. 

There is also a trail here that runs on an old cattle road down the opposite side of the valley to the road, and on the other day we spent here, Roja and I hiked that; preferable to him, as there was plenty of water; higher up, even now in February, it is very dry. 

Of all the places I’ve been to so far on this course, this is the one that has the best hiking opportunities. From where I was at 1200 metres, there are distant views over the Picos also. Tudanca does attract tourists, with its old traditional buildings pleasantly renovated, but not as much as scenic villages in other areas of the Cantabrians. It has a couple of bars and restaurants, closed at present, that would be very appealing in the shoulder seasons, though too hot for any serious hiking in the summer months. 

The weather has been settled for the last week, with afternoon temperatures up at around 16C, warmer in the sun, and nights down around 3C; perfect really, with high broken cloud and no rain. The weekend is turning cooler with some rain though. Neither Saturday or Sunday are forecast to be more than 8C, and some rain around, even the possibility of snow. 

With that in mind, I tweaked my route, though headed in the same direction as I had planned. Originally my next destination was at above a thousand metres, but there will be snow at that altitude, and temperatures for the weekend around zero. Instead I moved a couple of valleys east, to the Ebro, though had to drive north in a roundabout way to get there. 

I’m at Orbaneja Del Castillo at just over 400 metres above sea level and in the Ebro gorge, or ‘cañón del Ebro’. It’s a very picturesque tourist village these days with plenty of holiday accommodations, cafe and restaurants, but pleasantly quiet at this time of year. Enclosed between the eroded karst walls of the Ebro it has an almost fairy tale quality to it; its history dating back to 1327. A spectacular waterfall springs from the Cueva del Agua, or water cave, above the village and plunges almost directly through it giving rise to a series of pools of turquoise blue.

And.. there’s a good 4G signal for the weekend sport..