Congarna

Today was a very relaxing day, apart from the last uphill slog which, according to Juan, is always '15 minutes' with no indication of gradient 🙄😆.
We began with a 2 hour journey to Potes. The original plan was to stay overnight in Potes after yesterday's hell of a descent from Treviso, but as it's August and holiday season, no hotel will accept a one night stay. So we travelled from Sotres to Potes and it was great! The scenery is just stunning, and there are very few towns or villages to pass through, so it's pretty much the Cares Gorge all the way. Sheer rock faces and meandering rivers. We're walking the gorge tomorrow, so you'll hear more of that!
On arriving in Potes we made our way to the Monastery of St Toribio of Liebana, dating from the 18th century. This is a very special place for Christians because there's a relic of the cross of Jesus Christ contained within the golden cross you can see. And this is a bit of the same cross that was presented to King Charles III at his coronation (think I've got that right!). It was a very special place for me, too, cos I found a camino waymarker! This is an official 3 day detour on the Camino del Norte that Julie and I started last year. I even got myself a pilgrim's stamp from the pilgrim office - as daft as this may sound, this was a really special place for me, even though we were only there for a whistle-stop tour! 🥰 The best bit, though, was the fact that as soon as I'd stepped foit in the monastery doorway, my sins were forgiven. Some of my walking buddies suggested I might try bouncing back and forth over the threshold.🙄😂😂
After the monastery we drove on to Fuentes, where a cable car was waiting for us! This was a 4 minute journey up into the clouds and beyond, to the top of ... another mountain! But the views on emerging from the cloud layer were just glorious! The sun was shining, and it was simply amazing!
Our day's walk started here - we were to walk the 18km back to Sotres, stopping for lunch on our way down. Thankfully, it was a very gentle slope for the most part, and we were all able to move back and forth between each other, getting to know each other better and usually having a good laugh!
Juan tells us some great stories - today's was that his wife's great (great?) grandfather was a shepherd in the mountains here and was asked by a hunter to guide him back to the lodge up there when they were lost in the snow. Seems this hunter was the Spanish king at the time and became a lifelong friend of Sonya's great (great?) grandfather! That's the lodge with the red roof. It was a gift from the British King (? maybe?) and was transported from the UK to Spain. Inside is (apparently) as it was over 100 years ago. To be honest, Juan could tell us anything and we'd believe him 🙄🤪😆.
The cross and memorial were to a Sotres man who died in a horrendous winter in the 1940s - there was no food in Sotres so he set out to find some, dying as a result. It would certainly be a vicious winter in these parts!
The '15" minutes uphill was probably more like 20, but it brought us to our lovely hotel where we showered, ordered a glass of wine and ate a first class meal.
It only leaves me to say good night 🥱😴🥱😴🥱😴
I've added a photo from yesterday. If you zoom in you can definitely see a Griffin vulture!!!Read more