There are many more places that we could visit in the Cordillera Cantabrica: the Reserva Nacional de Fuentes Carrionas, el Bierzo, el Bosque de Muniellos, Parque Nacional de Covadonga, the Reserva Nacional del Sueve, and many others are all known for their wildness and natural history. But the mountains are really a summer area, with some 600 species of plant and 130 of butterflies in the haymeadows alone. The higher areas are decidedly cold now, though not as bitter as the Netherlands. We have enjoyed the unexpected opportunity to explore them, but now it is time to move on.
We choose a route that will cut off the north‑west corner of Iberia, but would take us through the Reserva Nacional de Somiedo. This area is the local stronghold of the brown bear. The absence of roads through the area has helped to protect the species, but not prevented their decline ‑ from about seventy in 1962 to less than thirty in the early 1970s ‑ numbers are thought to be stable now at about 30 individuals. Red and roe deer are also to be found here, along with chamois and wild boar, and the Cantabrican race of the capercaillie. All remain out of our sight.
The road follows south along the Rio Piguena, through a patchwork of forest and heathland scrub communities, then through mountains of contorted limestone up to the Puerto de Somiedo at 1500 metres. There is little wildlife to be seen anywhere. Just south of the Pass a whole village is shuttered up for winter, the inhabitants having taken their livestock off the hills for the shelter of the valleys. The house martins had deserted their homes in an earlier season.
No comments:
Post a Comment