Through the gully
31st August
After re-assembling our bodies the next morning, livers desperately working away the excess of wine, we got on the way quite late. First we walked down from Bulnes to Puente de la Jaya, the bottom end of the Garganta del Cares. It is a beautiful path winding down a narrow gorge.
Leaving Bulnes and heading down the Garganta Cares
At the bottom you cross a narrow bridge over the river Cares and then turn left from where we would walk the gorge upstream. The first part rises about 300 meters up over a huge cliff with the river deep below. The path then starts to wind along a very steep rock face. The footpath is wide, but has no barrier and is not advisable for anyone with an inclination to suffer from vertigo. Euwan wasn't a great fan of heights and tried to keep a very respectable distance between the edge and his footsteps. Not much negotiation space on a 2 meter wide path. But he managed through, a great achievement.
Tomoki at the beginning of Garganta del Cares
Tomoki was well ahead of us at times, which I told him, is risky. But would he listen? We just managed to rescue him from a marauding pack of goats. He was lucky, they were the of the vegetarian type and only after his chocolate.
Halfway the gorge, looking back
The further you get down the valley, the closer the river Cares rises up to the level of the footpath. On the last bit the path takes you through various tunnel as the gorge is no more than 10 meters wide. End is signalled by a small dam and then the valley widens and Cain is the next stop.
The camping site on the map was a misnomer. There is a field. No water, no toilet, which would come in handy later. But lets not jump ahead. We had our first and only rest day ahead of us. After that we would return through the gorge to pick up the bus to Bilbao.
Tomoki busy in the camping washroom
1st September
Tomoki and I took a small walk to Las Vegas as I had never been there and heard so much of its gambling facilities. It didn't quite live up to the picture I remember from friends who'd been there. Las Vegas litterally means "the fields", which was not an unreasonable name for a set of fields in Spain.
Resting on our resting day
It was amazingly light travelling without backpack. We cam across an old wolf trap from days long ago, but wolfs are still active in the area as I noticed from a new paper article. This landscape is utterly impressive.
Looking towards Cain and the start of the gorge
On the way back from our walk we did some shopping in the local shop and cooked ourselves a very nice meal. Or so it seemed. We had bought some obscure fish (tinned) and olives (packed), but something wasn't right. Obviously, with my solid iron system, I was the first to eh... expel some of the food we had eaten. Tomoki followed a bit later and Euwan only discovered he had been poisoned the next morning.
The faithful slightly poisonous meale
So there we were, ironically with no choice but to catch a plane on time to our respective countris, we had to walk the Cares gorge again, buttocks clenched. We said goodbye to Euwan and started to walk in a rather unfit condition, on a very empty stomach, no sleep and and the internal pressure of running shit. But as we passed the kilometres and other tourists things got gradually better and we finally made the end of the gorge. From there we walked to Poncebos and hitch hiked to Arenas de Cabrales.
The walk back through the Garganta del Cares
In Arenas a kind old lady directed us to the nearest campsite. Only 1km she promised. After 2 km down the road I started to suspect that she hadn't walked any distance in the last 12 years. In the end 2.5 km later our feet found rest in a nice shower with attached camping site. After Cain, anything campsite which promised toilet facilities gave us the impression of utter luxury.
We checked the bus time table to Potes (12:15 the next day).
2nd September
The next morning we did some shopping in Arenas de Cabrales as we had plenty of time before the bus that never showed up. Familiar pattern. "Bus only other days" I understood after checking the camping owner again. We need to improve our Spanish. So, we hitch hiked to Potes, which wasn't incredibly difficult.
Waiting again for a non existing bus
We checked the bus time table for the final bus to San Vincente de la Barquera. The bus was leaving 4 hours later near to the hotel a kind tourist office told us. My very big and utterly sharp knife was finally going to have a use if the bus didn't show up. But it did. So we left for San Vincente. Halfway the bus driver fancied a cup of coffee, so the bus stopped at a road outlet and continued 10 minutes later.
San Vincente is a nice sea side resort and fishing harbour with a pleasant (read loud) night life. The local tourist office gave us a map of cheap hotels. We were approached by a strange lady who offered us a room, but as we are decent people, we stated that we had already found one. Not really, and it proved quite a challenge to find the hotel. After asking several sets of locals and the local police for direction, we did managed to see most of the town, including the castle and church. Then our hotel turned out to be full and our second choice was, oh fate, the hotel owned by the strange lady that approached us in the first time. So we gave in.
Food. After last nights experience, fish and olives were out of the question. We settled in a nice fish restaurant, and my dictionary helped us understand that the menu consisted of .... fish, muscles, squid, crab and shrimp either fried, cooked stirred poached or barbequed. No way out, we tried a number of different items and it was really nice. Tomoki's attempt to order what our neighbours had on their table didn't quite work out, as his careful pointing was intercepted, and our neighbour offered him a pen ?
Arrived in San Vincente for our last night
After some evening shots we took to our comfortable beds, that is, Tomoki in the twin and me on the floor next to him.
3rd September
Up early to catch a bus to Bilbao, which again showed up. Did we finally get the hang of it? We still had some time to wander through Bilbao and visited the old town centre and local food market.
Then it was time to get back to the bus and take the final trip to the airport. Strange experience to say goodbye to a good friend after sharing a tiny tent for 10 days and then continue your lives on opposite parts of this planet. It would only be fair for me to chose a walking destination nearer to Japan for our next trip.