Losing my way / descubriendo Matanela

Having searched the Web for walks in the vicinity of the Matanela mountain pass between Cantabria and Burgos, I found a couple of likely routes. I left the car just off the road up to the Escudo, which used to be the main thoroughfare from Santander to Madrid, and headed off along what I assumed to be the right path. This photo from the beginning of the walk shows the village of Resconorio on the other side of the valley with a wind farm above. Matanela lies just to the right of the turbines.

Cada vez que hay una nevada fuerte en Cantabria se oye en las noticias que está cerrado el puerto de la Matanela. Decidí conocer el sitio y buscar alguna ruta por la zona. Aparcando en Luena empecé la caminata con el pueblo de Resconorio al otro lado del valle, y detrás un parque eólico que linda con Matanela.

The Escudo was just over to the right:
Pronto vi el Escudo justo enfrente, y me di cuenta de que no iba por buen camino

Realising I'd gone the wrong way I went back down to the car and 500 mts along the road I saw the walk signposted. It soon became clear though that accuracy hadn't been a prerequisite for the person describing the route directions. Giving it up as a bad job, I drove on through Resconorio and up to the Matanela pass. From here we walked up the 200 metres through the snow to the top of the mountain. Good views of Alto Campoo:

Bajé al coche y a medio kilómetro vi una flecha que señalaba la ruta que había bajado de la web. Por desgracia, las indicaciones no correspondían con el terreno y tuve que dar la vuelta por segunda vez. Subimos el puerto en coche y al llegar a Matanela decidí subir la loma por encima de la carretera. Había bastante nieve y una caminata divertida de unos 200 metros me permitíó disfrutar de unas vistas inesperadas. Según mi mapa el lugar se llama "Otero Mayor" - por algo era... Hacia el oeste, Alto Campoo:

 the Ebro reservoir:
el embalse del Ebro

and Castro Valnera, rising up majestically across the way
y asomándose de forma majestuosa Castro Valnera:                                               


On the way down, nearing the road that would take me to my next stop, the old and the new: three traditional huts dwarfed by the modern wind turbines

De vuelta al coche se veía el contraste entre las cabañas tradicionales de la zona y los generadores gigantes

Castro Valnera again, this time from the village of San Pedro del Romeral
Otra vista de Castro Valnera, esta vez desde San Pedro del Romeral, uno de los tres pueblos pasiegos

The village church
La iglesia



The next walk was taken from a similar source to the first of the day, and was equally confusing. By the time  I realised that when the route instructions said "right" they really meant "left" it wasn't worth turning back. So I plotted my own circular walk going round the meadows in the next photo and then making my way back to San Pedro.

A continuación emprendé una búsqueda casi tan infructuosa como el de la mañana - una ruta colgada en la web donde "derecha" significa "izquierda" y para cuando te das cuenta no merece la pena desandar lo andado. Así que decidí buscarme la vida entre los praos que se ven en la foto

 The typical postcard image of the Pasiego valleys, with the stone huts set in meadows bounded by dry-stone walls
Una imagen típica de los valles pasiegos

 and to take me down to the bottom of the valley a muddy narrow path:
y una senda angosta me llevó a la pista de retorno, no sin antes "disfrutar" del barro pasiego.

Y así acabamos este recorrido bilingüe.

a walk in the snow

Following a couple of weeks of really wintry weather, Monty and I set off from Santiurde de Reinosa to make the most of a sunny Saturday. After an hour or so the snow was deep enough for me to be wishing I had snowshoes.

Despite evidence to the contrary it was a lovely mild day:

Monty drew my attention to two deer moving through the woods just above us, so I followed their progress as they made their way towards the left and into the open:

It was pretty slow going as well as very tiring

We eventually made it to Paguenzo though, which is the pass to the Saja Valley

After admiring the views we changed direction and headed east



Here are the woods we trudged through earlier on

As you can see Monty was having a great time

A couple more photos taken on the way down:

We passed through the village of Rioseco, with its 12th century church,

All that remained then was a muddy track which took us back to Santiurde