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

Cabuérniga

A lovely walk for a mild winter's day, leaving the village of Barcenillas near Ruente and following the brook to the S-E.

A slight detour takes you to this waterfall

The track starts to climb until you get to this grazing land, the Braña de Joces, and then you carry on up to the top of the hill .The next part of the walk continues towards the Cdo de Nogalera 

The Sierra de Peña Sagra came into view (photo above)
and the Sierra de Cordel and Peña Labra (below)

Peña Sagra again, from the point where I changed direction, to head back down towards the north

The Cabuérniga Valley, with a fire the other side on the way up to the Collada de Carmona. This is a habitual sight in Cantabria in winter, when farmers set fire to stubble; unfortunately it sometimes gets out of hand if the wind gets up. As it is, today it did little to improve visibility...

A look back up to the ground covered from left to right

the descent to the village of Lamiña, just a kilometre from Barcenillas, which you can see a little farther on

¡Felices Fiestas! Season's Greetings!

 ¡Felices Fiestas! ¡Que cojamos fuerzas para aguantar lo que nos viene encima...! Por lo menos hay pequeños placeres en la vida que la banca y sus acólitos no nos pueden quitar - como andar por el campo y disfrutar de las cosas que regala a nuestros sentidos.

Enjoy the holidays and brace yourselves for a none-too-rosy-looking future! At least the bankers and their acolytes can't take away from us those little pleasures in life, like rambling in the country and enjoying the sights and sounds in store for us there.

The Missing Link

When Carmen and I moved to Cantabria in '95 we did the "Saja Reserve Walk" covering 90 km in four beautiful September days, crossing from the centre to the west of the province. Well not four actually, but three beautiful days, because the other one it rained and the mist prevented us from walking up the hills from La Lastra to Polaciones. Luckily, that was also the only day there was a road providing an alternative way for us to get to our destination.

I'd always meant to explore that "missing link" in the Walk - called the "Camino del Potro", or Colt's Way - and last weekend I used it on my way up to the Pico de las Astillas.

The first part is a gentle ascent up through an oak forest called Monte de Ruistromeo

The Cohilla reservoir lies below the path, with Cueto la Jaya on the other side

Low-lying cloud meant it wasn't a day for good views - here the summit of Cueto Jelgueras opposite became visible for a moment

Just after the Mirador del Potro I decided to head up the steep hillside through gorse and broom
to the top of Las Astillas

Once at the top, there were no views of Cueto Cucón, immediately to the west, as it was enveloped in cloud; happily, there was something to see to the N-W

The coastline away to the north:

The villages of Tudanca and La Lastra down below:

The reservoir below Cueto la Jaya

Pico las Astillas from the nearby hilltop of Hazas

From the col at the base of las Astillas I discovered there was a track that led down to the Camino del Potro, which would have saved me a steep climb earlier on had I bothered to look at a map. Still, it's always good to go back via a different route - here looking back up towards Las Astillas (and Hazas on the right)

The Polaciones valley

Looking towards Piedrasluengas - the border between Cantabria and Castille

A couple of photos taken on the way down:

Las Astillas on the left, the Mirador del Potro on the right

Jelgueras and Cuetu Concilla behind it still finding it hard to shake off the clouds

And so back to the car - a first outing with Carmen's camera.