Monat: August 2019

Last night we stayed within the mountains of Picos de Europa a nature reserve and one of the national parks of Spain. Brown bears, eagles, white-head griffon vultures and wolves are living here in wilderness. During the night I heard some strange sounds around the camper car. But due to the absolute darkness I saw nothing. In the morning I found animal excrement around. Perhaps from the goats which are also living here in the wilderness.

The place where we stayed is nearby Bulnes, a mountain village with approximately 40 citizens. Until the middle of 20th century this mountain village was totally isolated and not reachable by road or any other modern means of transportation. Until then the citizen have been self supporter with less contact to other people. Meanwhile a funicular was build up to connect Blues to the rest of the world.
Along the track we see a lot of abandoned houses or farms. It must be hard to life here, faraway, isolated and self-sustaining.

In many villages we see „Sidrerias“. Somebody told me, that within Castile, there it is no vineyard cultivation. The people here prefer a drink which is similar to cider.

At the end of the day, after driving endless zigzag roads up and down we arrived at a small town nearby Torrelavega.

In the morning the weather was misty and I walked around the beach of Rodiles to take some photos.

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Next we planned to drive to the beach of Cuevas Del Mar, but our pathway ended in front of a natural tunnel which we could not pass. Headway was only 2.5 meters.

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So we decided to take the car parking in front of the tunnel, leave the camper car behind and walk.

Costa Verde is amazing! Green vegetation.

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Later we carried on going west along the coast. For lunch we went into a local restaurant beside the road.

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From outside it did not look very inviting but the lunch was great. The restaurant was managed by an old lady and her husband who was cooking in the kitchen. We had noodles as starter, Asturian bean soup, main course, desert and coffee.
It seems as if they also look a little bit into environment health. The napkins have been from recycled material and the coffee was from sustainable growth conditions.

Never judge a restaurant from outside. 😉

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Finally we arrived somewhere in the middle of Picos de Europa.

The beach of Xagó is two kilometers long and surrounded by a vast dune ecosystem, with 35 hectares one of the largest within Astuia. Within the dunes we find small brackish and salt water lakes with a unique fauna and flora. All is covered by ferny which takes water from the air moisture at the night.

The whole day we had nothing to do hang out at the beach and take a coffee at the Waikiki Bar.

In the afternoon it starts to mizzle again and we decided to drive westbound. Finally we arrived at the beach of Rodiles where a local music festival takes place.

This place is surrounded by forrest, wild jungle and the Atlantic sea behind the trees. The humidity os so high, that everything ist getting dampish or muggy. While sitting in front of the camper van, you can see, how the clouds and moisture loom up from the sea side.

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