Bus to Covadonga Lakes

It’s so strange in Spain. You can’t do anything without an ID card and if you don’t have one of those, then you need to provide a passport. Hence when arriving at a campsite, you need a method of payment, two passports and in most cases, your ACSI card. The card facilitates a discount during shoulder season (the bits between low and high season) and we used it throughout the spring trip and at most sites here.

Even though it confirms my name and address, the ACSI card isn’t sufficient proof of ID. Apparently the passport details are provided to the Police. What a dreary job that must be, processing campers’ credentials.

Following the gorge walk, we had returned to the Picos de Europa campsite for an overnight stay. It's the last day of September and they are close to the end of the season. The cost was €23 for the two of us.

There, the next morning, we chatted to a couple in an old VW Caravelle and mentioned going to “the lakes”. They told us that access was only on a bus, from various Park & Ride locations in the valley below and the bus needed to be booked.

So I had to do some quick research and get something setup. There are four pick-up points along the valley and I chose P4, just because it’s a shorter journey up from there.

I completed the online forms, one for each person. The cost would be €9 each but to get to the payments screen, some personal data was required. Yes, an ID or passport number. For a flippin’ bus ticket! Grrr.

It was done, both journeys booked and we drove to P4 that morning, leaving about 10mins spare to park and setup the window blinds (interior heat control). As I turned off the road there was a height barrier of about 2.2m  No mention of that had been seen on the booking screens.

We tried to scrape underneath but it was too close and so turned around and went down to P3 where there was no barrier but a bus on its way in a couple of minutes.

When it arrived it was the earlier timetabled bus and because we had time stamped tickets we weren’t allowed on this one, even though it had spare seats.

Patiently we waited and then got on the 12:08 (running late) and were soon swinging around hairpins up to the lakes.

These lakes are victims of their own success and all car access has been stopped, to be replaced with the PnR. It must have been chaos on the roads and at the lakes’ parking because the area is very popular.

It all felt a bit ‘organised’ and cosmetic and most people, as usual, didn’t appear to stray far from the bus parks. We had a nice stroll around one lake, over and around a bit of a hill and then to the second lake.

By then we were ready for some food and found what was probably the only place still open, now it’s October.

The menu was a challenge as there was no phone signal and we were served with a melange of scrambled egg, little bits of ham and something else. The worst this could be was tripe and the meal would be over, however some careful tasting suggested mushroom. Suddenly it all looked very tasty and together with the statutory pan and cans of very nice lemonade, we had a nice lunch.

Once down in the valley we drove up a narrow and steep village road, to search for a recommended wild camp spot. It didn’t disappoint because it was tucked out of the way, had a good view and in the morning there was a temperature inversion and we looked out over a spectacular sight.