Tuesday, May 7, 2013

Walking the river Cares Gorge - Picos da Europa

Walking the river Cares Gorge will give you a day to remember.

You can locate Posada de Valdeon on the map, "Google it", in the heart of Picos de Europa National Park, in the autonomous community of Castile and León, Spain, and from there you will take your way to Caín ... where the road ends.
Can we go somewhere from here?
Not driving for sure, only walking we can move forward.
Returning to our map, we will see a river that unites Caín to Poncebos, is the River Cares.
The space between these two locations appears on the map as being a mountain range with peaks over 2.000m high and with many steep slopes surrounding the Cares Gorge.
Can it be crossed?
Yes, we can cross this gorge and you will find one of the most interesting walking trails of the National Park and probably of Spain, the Cares Gorge / La Garganta del Cares. It is a very deep canyon where runs the Cares River through all its extension, uniting Caín to Poncebos.
It’s a 12km / 7.5mi walk, without much elevation gain or loss, always following along a trail that is, for most of its length, about 1, 5 m wide.
Between 1915 and 1921 the "Sociedad Electra de Viesgo" built a canal that would drive the Cares River waters from Caín to the hydroelectric of Poncebos. The result of this work is the canal that nowadays we can see along the trail which has 71 tunnels and where the water will be constantly appearing and disappearing.
However, there was always many conservation problems and between 1945 and 1950 a new canal had to be built next to a new trail and that is the path that we can walk. In some photos you can still see the old trail on a lower lever along the river.
After walking the 12 km long trail we get to Puente de Poncebos where we can find some terraces and then will be the perfect time to drink a beer and eat some tapas, preferably from Cabrales cheese, a local cheese made with milk from sheep's, goat's and cow's with very intense flavor and a characteristic mold, typical of the region.
This walk is part of one of the tours I'm constantly offering due its natural beauty and also because it is one of a kind.
I'll be waiting for you.
David Monteiro
Please check the original article at my blog in Wordpress