Spring snow
Pepe wonders about mud and sun
As the weather improves, the chaps (and chapesses) in Grupo Naranco get more cheerful. The amounts of clothing, gaiters and umbrellas gets less and less, people stop scanning the sky as we head out on the bus, confident that it won’t be as grey as in the winter. Pepe works as a security guard up at the hospital and I bump into him most weeks on my way to or from the classes there. We say hello and wonder aloud if the next walk will be sunny or not, or if there’s finally going to be a walk without mud (it is an unwritten, and unspoken rule that all walks must contain a section on either a very muddy path or up or down a stream). It hasn’t happened so far.
Coming down
Sunday was forecast to be glorious, until Friday when the forecast changed to hazy, then cloudy. So far so normal for Asturias. Friday and Saturday had been balmy in the city so we had high hopes. We were heading to San Isidro, the ski station (I’d say resort but it’s not big enough… what do you use when it’s a place to ski but not really big enough for a holiday? Resort seems too grand) in León. We’d walk from there North into Asturias. As ever the landscape is stunning, patches of snow amongst the limestone and grass, with hundreds of tiny daffodils… a host? a hostess? We walked up to Peña de viento, and as we got to the top, as ever, the clouds covered everything north of us (ie everything in Asturias). We stopped for a snack and to watch the clouds coming up and over the peaks, enjoying the sunshine when it appeared.
Hulooooo
We descended on snow slopes rather than ankle snapping scree, enjoying the softness of the spring snow, where you can put your heel down hard and be sure of not slipping. All too soon we were below the snow, and the cloud, filling up water bottles with icy meltwater. We stopped in a meadow formed from moraine dam and ate empanada (basically a foccacia baked with chorizo and pork fat (Liz took the pork fat out of hers, I didn’t)). Then down a track for a couple of hours along the side of a big valley, passing high altitude bee hives and heather covered hills… and a couple of muddy sections. Just enough time for a shandy at the bottom before a snooze on the coach home.
Tags: grupo naranco, mountains, walking
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Balmy in the city -perhaps…..Or is that just generally barmy??
And how about a hostlet for them petit daffs?
Sorry – couldn’t resist it. Can only be incipient depression – the results of spending a gorgeous, hot and sunny Easter week-end eating bacon-butties at the (well known bikers’s hangout) Devil’s Bridge @ Kirby Lonsdale; followed by happily wandering around a wonderfully grockle-free Martindale….
To THIS…, the sunshine/rain/cloudy/clear/hot/cold….. OK, OK, this is a bank holiday weekend in the UK!!