Picos de Europa

The Picos are Spain’s oldest National Park and top hiking area. An area of spectacular limestone scenery rising to about 2600 m above sea-level, I had always wanted to visit ever since I first heard about it. Unusually, I made no firm plans in advance for walks as I could not find much information on how difficult walking would be in the high mountainous terrain (above 2000 m).

Costs. Flight £62. Potes hotel 1 (B&B) €43. Aliva hotel (B&B) €43. Potes hotel 2 (B&B) €45. Santander hotel (B&B) €39. Glasgow–Edinburgh Airport bus (return) £13. Santander–Airport bus €2.20 each way. Santander–Potes bus €8.05 each way. Cable car (one way) €9.70. Typical evening meal with wine in Potes €11. Typical 50 cl beer in Potes €4. Travel insurance £6. Total cost of trip £350.

Places I stayed and was happy with. Hotel Valdecoro, Potes (Day 1, Read my review); Hotel Aliva, Puerto de Aliva (Day 2, Read my review); Hotel Picos de Europa, Santander (Day 4, Read my review).

Books. Landscapes of the Picos de Europa by Teresa Farino (Sunflower Books, 7th revised edition).

Maps. Parque Nacional de Picos de Europa, 1:40,000, Editorial Alpina SL.

See also. San Vicente and Potes.

Day 1: Travel to Potes. Ordered taxi from home into city centre, caught the 4.45 am bus to the airport, and then flew at 7 am from Edinburgh to Santander, landing at 10.15 am local time. Got the 11 am bus into Santander (10 min). Killed a lot of time in the city before catching the 3.15 pm bus to Potes (the earliest on a Sunday I could get). Arrived in pretty Potes at 5.40 pm after spectacular journey through the Hermida Gorge. Found excellent hotel (pre-booked) and had dinner.

Day 2: Walk from El Cable to Puerto de Aliva via Horcados Rojos. Caught the 8.15 am bus from Potes to Fuente Dé, arriving 8.45 am. Cable car opened late at 10.35 am (should have been 10 am). Starting walking at 10.45 am from top of lift (1800 m altitude) along PR23. Summited Torre de los Horcados Rojos (2561 m) at about 1.15 pm. Decided I did not like look of steep descent to Refugio de Urriellu and so retraced steps and then diverted to the simple but lovely hotel at Puerto de Aliva, arriving 4.10 pm (so 5 h 25 min walking). Surprise bonus was “Astronomy Workshop” until 1.30 am.

Day 3: Walk from Puerto de Aliva to Fuente Dé. Left hotel at 11.45 am after taking some photos. Descended to Espinama (with a detour to the pretty little chapel of La Virgen de la Nieves) and Fuente Dé along PR22, then GR202 and then PR-S7, arriving 4.20 pm (so 4 h 35 min walking). Caught 5 pm bus back to Potes. Found hotel and had dinner.

Day 4: Circular walk around Potes; travel to Santander. Left hotel at 10.40 am. Did Walk 1 in Landscapes of the Picos de Europa (see Books): a steep uphill drag out of Potes, followed by the delightful gentle descent through the hamlets of Tudes and Porcieda and a beautiful, rare northern cork oak forest. Arrived back in Potes at 4.15 pm (so 5 h 35 min walking). Caught the 5.30 pm bus to Santander. Found hotel (pre-booked) and had dinner.

Day 5: Travel home. Bus at 8.45 am to airport (15 min). Flight at 10.25 am. Arrived at Edinburgh Airport 11.30 am local time. Caught the 12 noon bus to Glasgow. Arrived in work at 1 pm.

Wildlife seen. Cantabrian Chamois, Wallcreeper, Black Redstart, Alpine Chough, Wheatear, Alpine Accentor, Adonis Blue, Chalkhill Blue, Purple Hairstreak, Southern Hawker.

Other useful links. Palomera buses

Cantabria bus timetables

Fuente Dé cable car

Edinburgh Airport bus

Reflections. The Picos region as a whole is stunning and Potes is delightful. My walks on Day 2 and Day 4 were both excellent, although very different. The first half of the walk on Day 3 was good but the second half rather dull; I should have switched to the PR24 and cut out the long descent on concrete into Espinama. The weather was excellent; perhaps a bit too warm for the low altitude walks. I will do more walking in the high Picos but, if solo, I will probably stick to the PR/GR paths as the terrain is very rough “off piste”. As for Santander... 4 h sightseeing on Day 1 was about 3 h 30 min more than I needed.

© 2014 The Untravelled World