Work started again yesterday, but not before I had taken full advantage of my five days off. Last Sunday we went for lunch at Matt's dad's house. Matt's dad and his wife, Carolina, live in a small village near the town of Nava - in the cider making district for those who are interested. We had a tasty lunch (leek and pumpkin soup, spinach and goat's cheese tart and chocolate creme caramel - Carolina is a very good cook) then went for a leisurely walk through some neighbouring villages.
A view of Grátila, walking from La Piloñeta.
Before we left to go home we stopped off at a bar and had a drink outside with this lovely view:
Everything was so picturesque that on the way home I found myself half-wishing that we lived in a different area. Come Monday, however, I soon changed my mind. This was when we made our way up the Peña Mayor, a mountain ridge which rises to over 1,200m - it dominates many views in this area. We'd been meaning to have a walk up there for ages and I'm very pleased that we did as this was the highlight of my holiday. Unfortunately it was quite cloudy so we didn't get the fantastic views that we'd been promised. Even so, the clouds made it very atmospheric. It was so tranquil up there - we only saw two other walkers during the whole morning and the only sounds to be heard were those of birds calling to each other.
A view of the Peña Mea, seen on the way up to the Peña Mayor.
A view from the Peña Mayor - I marvelled over the fact that we could see the peaks of snow-capped mountains above the cloud.
When the clouds descended.
The plaque reads " Pozo Funeres 1988. A quienes fueron aquí asasinados por el fascismo en el año 1948. Viva la libertad y el socialismo." (Pozo Funeres 1948. To those who were killed here by fascism in 1948. Long live freedom and Socialism.)
Matt halted all of a sudden and declared 'look at this!' I wondered why he was crouched down to look at a daisy until I had a closer look. Has anyone ever seen anything like this before? As best I could tell it was a 'sextuplet'. The one thick stem itself was amazing. And while we were sat down looking at the flower we glanced up and saw an enormous bird circling over our heads. I'm not one for birdwatching so I'm really not sure what it was. We get lots of buzzards in these parts but this was much larger. It was impossible to capture the size of it in a photo but we reckon the wing span must have been at least two metres across, it was quite majestic. We lay back and watched as it soared silently above us. In fact, Egyptian vultures also inhabit this area so perhaps it was one of them - as we were lying quite still it may have thought it was its lucky day and lunch had been served. It hung around for quite a while before it decided we weren´t fair game.
We arrived home with very achy thighs but highly contented after an eventful walk. We intend to do it again some time soon but in clearer weather so we can enjoy the views.
Shaggy sheep and small ponies in Grátila.
The scenery around Nava is different from our area of Asturias. The mountains don't dominate as much as they do here and the view is more open.
A view of Grátila, walking from La Piloñeta.
Everything was so picturesque that on the way home I found myself half-wishing that we lived in a different area. Come Monday, however, I soon changed my mind. This was when we made our way up the Peña Mayor, a mountain ridge which rises to over 1,200m - it dominates many views in this area. We'd been meaning to have a walk up there for ages and I'm very pleased that we did as this was the highlight of my holiday. Unfortunately it was quite cloudy so we didn't get the fantastic views that we'd been promised. Even so, the clouds made it very atmospheric. It was so tranquil up there - we only saw two other walkers during the whole morning and the only sounds to be heard were those of birds calling to each other.
A view of the Peña Mea, seen on the way up to the Peña Mayor.
A view from the Peña Mayor - I marvelled over the fact that we could see the peaks of snow-capped mountains above the cloud.
When the clouds descended.
The walk was also interesting as we saw the Pozo Funeres. This is a natural well which was used during the Franco regime to kill twenty-two Socialist dissenters. Apparently they were thrown down there and left to die, if the fall hadn't already killed them. It was a sombre moment as I peered down the hole to see how deep it went and realised that the bottom couldn't be seen.
The plaque reads " Pozo Funeres 1988. A quienes fueron aquí asasinados por el fascismo en el año 1948. Viva la libertad y el socialismo." (Pozo Funeres 1948. To those who were killed here by fascism in 1948. Long live freedom and Socialism.)
On the way back down the ridge we saw a couple of things that made us stop and stare:
Matt halted all of a sudden and declared 'look at this!' I wondered why he was crouched down to look at a daisy until I had a closer look. Has anyone ever seen anything like this before? As best I could tell it was a 'sextuplet'. The one thick stem itself was amazing. And while we were sat down looking at the flower we glanced up and saw an enormous bird circling over our heads. I'm not one for birdwatching so I'm really not sure what it was. We get lots of buzzards in these parts but this was much larger. It was impossible to capture the size of it in a photo but we reckon the wing span must have been at least two metres across, it was quite majestic. We lay back and watched as it soared silently above us. In fact, Egyptian vultures also inhabit this area so perhaps it was one of them - as we were lying quite still it may have thought it was its lucky day and lunch had been served. It hung around for quite a while before it decided we weren´t fair game.
We arrived home with very achy thighs but highly contented after an eventful walk. We intend to do it again some time soon but in clearer weather so we can enjoy the views.
1 comment:
Great photos Rachel! That bird sounded HUGE and photographs never quite 'catch' the size of certain things do they? That flower looked very bizarre indeed.
Sounds like a wonderful day indeed.
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