Friday, January 02, 2015

A cliff-top walk from La Isla to Lastres in Asturias

On New Year's day we decided to go for a coastal walk about 20 minutes drive from us: La Isla to Lastres. This path is well sign-posted and apart from a small amount of road walking at either end, it takes you along a vertigo inducing cliff-top path with spectacular views; just the thing to work off the excesses of Christmas and New Year. We started this linear walk on La Isla beach.


La Isla

It was a very cold start to the day with a wide-spread frost which is very unusual for where we are, we rarely get frost at all. The sky was blue and cloudless and as the sun rose, it warmed the air quickly rendering our two layers of fleece, shirt and gloves somewhat excessive.

Lastres in the distance


With a picnic of tortilla, walnut bread, celery, dried figs, fruit and drinks we were well set up to spend the day exploring, taking in the views and enjoying the warmth of the winter sun. We were surprised at the amount of flowers in bloom and how little evidence of Christmas there was in the villages along the way.


The eroding cliffs, mud slides and 50 meter vertical drop into turquoise blue seas and jagged rocks, is not something I or my newly acquired vertigo relish but never-the-less it was enjoyable and as long as I didn't get too far near the edge I was OK...ish. We spent a few minutes watching a diver navigate the rocks, probably fishing for goose-foot barnacles (percebes), a delicacy here in Asturias.

Searching for Goose-foot barnacle?



As you approach the far end of this linear walk you head slightly inland through the village of Guerres before heading down to La Griega beach (famous for dinosaur footprints) and on to Lastres. We passed more cattle and horses than people along the way and enjoyed our home-made picnic before heading back to La Isla to spend a few minutes on the beach as the sun began to set.





No comments:

Post a Comment

Click link to read more.