Nature Walk

Some thing we have been meaning to do for a while was to explore the coastal walking potential of the cliffs beyond Plentia. A hard working week of trying to paint  Dark Tarns decks between rain showers had left me with an aching back and Lynne a bit jaded too, so as the sun came out to play we left on the Metro with a packed lunch. The Metro doesnt actually reach Plentia yet so from Sopela we left the station and took advantage of the free bus which drops you off at the completed but unused Metro station just across the river from Plentia old town. We had a chat with the very nice young man at the Tourist Information who gave us a couple of maps including one showing very clearly the walks we were interested in.

We have discovered that maps at a small scale useful for walking are pretty much unavailable so we were very grateful for this. we walked past the stunning beaches at Plentia and Gorlitz and began the climb up towards the top of the cliffs.

The path rises through some pine forest and is very steep, it quickly became apparent that during the recent rain this path would have been a major drainage line.

A few rests were called, (by me), after all photos dont take themselves!

As we crested the lip of the cliffs the view was stunning.

In the distance could be seen the ruin of Fort de Askorrigia which we decided would be a good spot to lunch. The path thankfully diverged from the appallingly steep and extremely high cliffs and cut through the thick pine woods to a small viewpoint.

Again the views were truly beautiful.

 The path once more diverged from the cliff edge and continued to climb up and up, suddenly we appeared at the crest of the woods and revealed before us was a scene that was almost Alpine in character. To our surprise it was carpeted in Crocus. Surely a spring flower?

What goes up must come down and as is the nature of cliffs we had now to decend to the ruined fort on the headland where we planned to have lunch.

From a geological point of view this bit of coast can easily rival Dorsets Jurrassic coast.

A narrow path led us to the small ruin, Im afraid I am not familiar with its history only that it dates from the 18th century and had cannon installed to defend the port of Plentia (Napoleonic era). A very nice spot to eat our sandwiches though.

The weather was lovely and we had to keep reminding ourselves that it was only a week or so off my birthday, late October. 

After lunch we were faced with yet another steep climb.

as we reached the summit and began to walk along a reasonably level section we were bombarded by leaping Chicadas (grasshoppers)

 As I was in the front I would make them jump and Lynne who was following would be in the firing line, so I did the gentlemanly thing and let Lynne go in front for a while . All was going well until suddenly Lynne spotted a large snake lying in the sun, Im afraid we both moved away quite quickly!

I think the snake was fact one of the 5 venemous snakes in Spain. This one.

Seoane's Viper (Vipera seoanei - víbora de Seoane). This snake is dangerous. It lives in Galicia, León, the Cantabrian coastal strip (Cornisa Cantábrica) and the Basque Country.

As we continued towards the lighthouse we noticed that a lot of the road we were now walking on had collapsed down the usual steep cliff. we also noticed a couple of Peregrine Falcons swooping backwards and forwards in the clifftop thermals.

The Road continued to ríes and crossed a concrete bridge before the last steep bit up to the lighthouse.

we had a rest at the light and admired the view over Isla Billano.

We dropped back down through the valley we had glimpsed earlier and were again surprised to hear the bellowing of deer.

But there they were! One buck and a doe.

a lovely walk was finished back at the beach at Gorlitz and a well earned coffee in the beach cafe.