The disappointment of learning that the full length of this gorge walk isn’t possible, was tempered when we realised there was time to do the first 3.5km of it and do it in the late afternoon, after the day of driving slowly to Espinama and back.
The Americans that we’d met the previous day had turned up that evening in Sotres for a look around. They told us that the first part of the walk was ‘allowed’ but also that people were ignoring the “don’t go any further barriers”. Maybe they were doing all 12 km to Cain.
We parked in a suitable place for the start of the walk, which would have been ideal for the Bulnes one too. It was late afternoon and there were spaces by then.
The Cares river has carved the most amazing knife-slash cleft in the mountains and the walk is precipitous along the northern side, with the path mainly running high above the river, yet far below the towering cliffs.
The result is that there’s an enormous amount of scree of all shapes and sizes and you really need to listen for the sound of falling chunks.
A lot of the section we walked to the closed barriers is uphill, so just as for the Bulnes walk, we could get rid of excess energy, knowing that the return would be easier. With the Landy driver having been instructed to park in a proper place, we came down off the path and were ‘home’.
Just below where we parked is the Poncebos hydro electric plant and in the early 20C the waters of the Cares river were tapped to provide power.
As with so many industrial projects of those times, this one is staggering in its endeavour. 11km of canal were constructed, taking water down 1,000m from the town of Cain to the hep plant.
The canal has 71 tunnels, hand cut by 2,000 workers, carrying the waters along aqueducts down the gorge. Today’s gorge walk roughly follows the track that the construction works used.
The exposure was quite severe at times and tripping-up was not an option. When we got to the high point, we could see the barriers and decided that we wouldn’t go any further. I assume that the dangers from landslips are just too great, as from that point the mountain has decided to move more than usual.
Whilst up here in the mountains, we did manage to grab a pic of a ‘dog sheep’. This is the name we gave to the sheep guard dogs that we first encountered years ago in the Ecrins in France.
These amazing dogs stay with sheep in these high pastures and watch over them, guarding from predators, of which there are presumably plenty.
They appear uninterested in us but I’m sure that’s because we always keep our distance.
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