Where's Bertie? He's in a large car park 2km south of Poncebos (exact location: 43.27542, -4.83391)
Weather: Wall-to-wall sunshine
It was 1 degree outside as we left Mier this morning and a frost covered the valley. Bertie had done a sterling job with his insulation, with his internal temperature only dropping to 9 degrees.
It was no warmer outside when we reached Poncebos, where we found a car park with remarkably small spaces, but we managed to find one into which Bertie could be shoehorned. That was a bonus as from StreetView I had assumed the car park belonged to the funicular railway and that we would have to park on the sloping road.
The walk along the Cares Gorge is, apparently, the most popular walk in this area, and that was where we were going today. I've written about it and included photos on our walking blog, and if you click here you'll be transported to that post. Here I'll suffice to say that it was a path worthy of its reputation and our few hours of incredible scenery were made even better by seeing an otter in the Cares river, just a few minutes after setting out.
It had been relatively warm in the gorge for much of the way. Poncebos, on the other hand was still a chilly place when we returned. Thus, even though I was already forming a vague plan to walk from there again tomorrow, we wasted no time in packing everything away and heading 6km back down the road to Arenas de Cabrales. I'd noted the huge car park there as we'd driven past earlier and it looked like it would catch the sun.
We sat there for a few hours, getting Bertie nicely warm, and would happily have stayed there all night. We know that other motorhomers do, but the signage at the entrance seems to prohibit 'the installation of motorhomes with the intention of staying overnight', which seemed quite specific to me. Equally, we would have gone back up to Poncebos, but the signage there prohibits motorhomes 'from dusk and all night' and is even multi-lingual. So, we opted for this car park, which we had spotted when passing earlier. It's huge, and being located a bit 'in the middle of nowhere' I can only assume it's used as overflow parking for the Cares Gorge in summer, with the users having to walk an extra 2km each way (or maybe there's a shuttle?). Of all the spaces here, there are only a couple that are level, but as we're the only vehicle, that wasn't a problem for us. Of course, if another motorhome should happen along (which seems unlikely), they will be forced to park right next to us.
Being 8 degrees when we arrived here at approaching 6pm, and with a clear sky, we are predicting another frosty night.
(I was going to include some photos in this post, but the signal here is weak (hey, we're in the middle of nowhere and deep in a gorge - it's a miracle there's any signal at all) and my battery is low, so if you want to see the snaps, you'll need to click on the link to our walking blog
Weather: Wall-to-wall sunshine
It was 1 degree outside as we left Mier this morning and a frost covered the valley. Bertie had done a sterling job with his insulation, with his internal temperature only dropping to 9 degrees.
It was no warmer outside when we reached Poncebos, where we found a car park with remarkably small spaces, but we managed to find one into which Bertie could be shoehorned. That was a bonus as from StreetView I had assumed the car park belonged to the funicular railway and that we would have to park on the sloping road.
The walk along the Cares Gorge is, apparently, the most popular walk in this area, and that was where we were going today. I've written about it and included photos on our walking blog, and if you click here you'll be transported to that post. Here I'll suffice to say that it was a path worthy of its reputation and our few hours of incredible scenery were made even better by seeing an otter in the Cares river, just a few minutes after setting out.
It had been relatively warm in the gorge for much of the way. Poncebos, on the other hand was still a chilly place when we returned. Thus, even though I was already forming a vague plan to walk from there again tomorrow, we wasted no time in packing everything away and heading 6km back down the road to Arenas de Cabrales. I'd noted the huge car park there as we'd driven past earlier and it looked like it would catch the sun.
We sat there for a few hours, getting Bertie nicely warm, and would happily have stayed there all night. We know that other motorhomers do, but the signage at the entrance seems to prohibit 'the installation of motorhomes with the intention of staying overnight', which seemed quite specific to me. Equally, we would have gone back up to Poncebos, but the signage there prohibits motorhomes 'from dusk and all night' and is even multi-lingual. So, we opted for this car park, which we had spotted when passing earlier. It's huge, and being located a bit 'in the middle of nowhere' I can only assume it's used as overflow parking for the Cares Gorge in summer, with the users having to walk an extra 2km each way (or maybe there's a shuttle?). Of all the spaces here, there are only a couple that are level, but as we're the only vehicle, that wasn't a problem for us. Of course, if another motorhome should happen along (which seems unlikely), they will be forced to park right next to us.
Being 8 degrees when we arrived here at approaching 6pm, and with a clear sky, we are predicting another frosty night.
(I was going to include some photos in this post, but the signal here is weak (hey, we're in the middle of nowhere and deep in a gorge - it's a miracle there's any signal at all) and my battery is low, so if you want to see the snaps, you'll need to click on the link to our walking blog
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