Mountains, and inside mountains
So summer’s over and the walking groups are at it again. A week and a half ago, we had our first outing, up Pico Jario in León. It sits to the southwest of the picos de europa and we were lucky with the weather, meaning we had clear blue skies and utterly stunning views of the western massif. I was pleased we’d done a bit of walking over the summer because I always seem to underestimate how high these hills are, thinking to myself that we’re nearly at the top, only to crest a rise and be presented with a significant amount of up…
Then last weekend, we had an extra trip, thanks to Pompeyo, who had cajoled and pleaded until we had enough to make a bus load for a trip to las cuevas soplao in Cantabria. Follow the link to the cave’s website because there are some rather nice photos of some very eccentric formations, and not so eccentric…
I did the adventure tour, which involved helmets, tyvek overalls and wellies, and walking well away from the paved tourist areas accompanied by a couple of guides. They gave very good explanations of how the different forms arise and some of the geological processes that go on in cave formation. The stalactites range from the ‘macaroni’ tubes to the massive elephant ears and columns, there’s even one which has formed as a helix, it looks just like a corkscrew. The scrambling down cracks in the ground really adds a lot to the normal cave visit experience, and, although it’s not cheap (€25 for the two and a half hour trip), as we emerged, blinking, into the light I thought it was well worth it.
Tags: walking
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