Hiking in the Picos de Europe!

Grotto and Kayleigh

With Kayleigh from the USA I went hiking in the Picos de Europa. Most people can’t believe that there are mountains like this in Spain. We were hiking there from the 18th to 20th April and there was still snow. Kayleigh had birthday at the 18th April, so we thought we should do something special. As she arrived she saw the mountain from far away and made the decision to go there.

Picos de Europa

stop in Cangas de Onís

So we started in Arriondas, helper Jonathan drove us to the city and from there we hitch-kiked to the Picos. This was my first time hitch-hiking, but Kayleigh had done it before! And it worked out so well, we never had to wait more than 10 minutes. At first we hitch-hiked to Cangas de Onís and asked in the tourist information for good hiking walks and ‘refugios’.  These are cheap hotels for hikers. Our next lift brought us to Covadonga, at the foot of the Picos. This is a very touristical village, I’m not sure if somebody is living there. We have seen a big basilica and downstair a cute chapelle (Virgen de Covandonga) in a grotto!

the elephant

dinner

From there we were looking for somebody who took us uphill the 12 km to the ‘Lagos de Covadonga’, two very beautiful lakes in the mountains. Our lift, an older couple was so firendly, they drove us directly in front of our ‘refugio’. That was so good, because I felt sick and only wanted to sleep. Kayleigh was outside. Later the man of the refugio made us a fire in the fireplace and we warmed up our food and celebrated Kayleighs birthday with red wine.

Picos de Europa

inside a cloud & snow

The next day at nine we started the walk around the two lakes, the ‘Lago de Enol’ and ‘Lago de Eracina’. Amazing, wonderful and the lakes were like a mirror. In the afternoon we started hiking uphill. It was hard, but suddenly we were so high, we could almost touch the raincloud! So I was keen how it feels, when we are inside the cloud, so we continued hiking uphill. Inside a cloud it is very foggy; we saw a group of wild goats and also the first fields of snow!

tapas

Our last day we started at nine again went to another point of view. From there we could see, that we awaked above the clouds and we finally could see the tops of the mountains (the day before was too cloudy). The way back by hitch-hiking was well, too. We made a stop in Cangas de Onís for some tapas!