DAY 12 - After my string of superlatives about Potes, The Picos and my accommodation, I’m afraid I do have a slight downer to report about my digs ☹. I guess I went to bed around 11.30pm and due to the narrowness of the street, the fact people do sit outside and there appeared to be a particularly raucous lot enjoying themselves, I did have to resort to a pair of my motorcycle earplugs to dumb everything down. Thankfully I was shattered and very slightly under the influence, so within 30 minutes I was fast asleep anyway!

Having dreamt of Aragorn, Frodo and Rivendell, I awoke at 8.15am having thought I’d set my alarm for 7.15am. Obviously not! Then, doing a few physical jerks as I’m not running, gyming or swimming at the moment, I was all behind especially spending further time uploading the pics I was trying to upload last night. Success, yesterdays pics are now uploaded if you’re interested!

By the time I’d fueled up and bought a bit of grub from the supermarket it was well gone midday before I hit the road for Fuente De. It was only 15 miles or so along the valley, but what a ride! Lovely sweeping bends, picture postcard villages and new breathtaking views around every bend. And just when you thought it couldn’t get any better, you reach Fuenta De and you’re met with a wall of limestone that towers above you. Then incredibly these little ants, called human beings have managed to string up a cable car going almost to the top in ONE span, no interim support towers at all, in fact (Factoid ALERT!) it is the longest single span cable car in Europe and the altitude at the top once you step out of the cable car is around 6,000 feet above sea level! (About 1,500 feet higher than Ben Nevis)

Needless to say it was very popular, especially with the sunny warm conditions, and I guess I had to wait around half an hour before I was packed into the capsule with around 16 other helpless souls. However the ride up was smooth and fast; you couldn’t really gauge how fast until the other car zoomed past in the opposite direction! The whole journey was over in around 4-5 minutes and once disgorged at the top, everyone mills around the viewing platforms trying to get the best selfies ( I asked someone to take a pic of  me instead, see pic below!) and panoramic views before retiring to the café or joining the queue to get back down again. Thankfully I still have a little spirit of adventure and had opted to walk down, a trek, apparently of at least 4 hours and according to the warden in the Tourist Information booth I spoke to down at the bottom, 5 hours! If she was right I’d be getting back down as it was starting to get dark!

So, having established my bearings and with the help of the little leaflet given to me by the park ranger I set off just after 2.45pm and began my descent. Wayfinding was initially sketchy, but gradually the little white and yellow stripes would appear on rocks and at most path intersections there would be a finger indicating PR-PNPE.24 which was the trail I wanted. After around an hour and a half descending, I passed a couple of supposed refuges! Well they may have started out as refuges many years ago, but they looked more like 3 star hotels now, at least from the outside! About half a mile after these blots on the landscape I came across a giant of a dog, all on his own. I assume he was either some kind of sheep dog (not one for rounding up sheep, but for protecting them at night from bear attack. Apparently there are brown bears in The Picos!) or was attached to one of the hotels as there was certainly no human around offering any kind of supervision! Thankfully for me he was quite friendly, as he was one of those dogs that could easily have jumped up and placed his front paws on my shoulders. So, for the animal lovers amongst you I’ve included a pic and I’d like someone to identify the make and model please?

After 2 hours or so of walking the landscape changed from wide open country with majestic Egyptian and Griffon Vultures soaring on the thermals, to forested hillside with brightly coloured butterflies and grasshoppers that would show a bright flash of blue plumage every time they leapt to avoid my size 10 boots clomping by!

Thankfully the park warden’s prediction of 5 hours was well wide of the mark and I was back in the car park by 5.15pm, so the walk down had taken me three and a half hours .And to think the trip up was around 4 minutes! My boots were rubbing again but thankfully as the walk was shorter than the one I did on Exmoor (see beginning of blog)  I managed to get away with a sore hot spot, rather than a blister. However I must ensure I put a plaster on before I start the Camino in four days time!