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Message: <blockquote data-quote="davercox" data-source="post: 2758879" data-attributes="member: 34161">This wasn’t a birding trip, just a holiday, and I didn’t keep a detailed diary, so don’t expect too much.  And, there are a lot of remarks in here that no doubt show my ignorance, feel free to comment in the best traditions of BF …A bit of an adventure: towing the caravan in Spain for the first time, using the Brittany (sic) Ferries route from Plymouth-Santander, giving us 23 nights over there.The PLAN was to spend a few nights in or close to the Picos de Europa, then move eastwards into the Pyrenees in France before returning to Santander.  Little research was done beforehand, but most of it concentrated on the Pyrenees.  Particular thanks to ‘rosbifs’ who provided splendid information about his home area of Luz-St Sauveur, exactly where we were planning to go.  The best laid plans …Out on the Pont Aven from Plymouth on 26 May (lovely smooth crossing), arrived Santander midday 27th, stopped at Carréfour in Torrelaviega for supplies and diesel … it turned out this was not a great idea as both were, if anything, cheaper where we ended up … then on to Camping La Viorna just outside Potes.We instantly fell in love with this site, and this area, and didn’t move until it was time to get the ferry home on 19th June.  Sorry ‘rosbifs’, and thanks for all your help, maybe another year … ?Campsite ‘La Viorna’ is about 2km west of Potes, on the southern slope of the Deva valley.  It’s only just outside the Picos de Europa national park (we walked several times to within the NP).  The snow-capped (at this time) mountains of the Picos fall in dramatic cliffs to the foothills around: the foot of the mountains is at about 1000m above sea level, and their peaks well over 2000m.  The foothills are about 60% wooded, apparently scrub though I may be utterly wrong here: a few fairly large sweet chestnuts and beech are surrounded by moderate-size oaks (sessile I guess) with a some ash and hazel: coppicing has obviously been done fairly recently but I do not know if it still continues.  The remainder of the foothill country is mostly meadow and pasture (dairy cattle and sheep), with a few areas of garrigue-like country, mostly towards the tops of the ridges.The campsite is at roughly 400m asl, Potes itself around 300m. Incidentally I can thoroughly recommend the campsite: one of the best we’ve ever stayed at (and, with an ACSI card, €16 for two including electricity is pretty good value).We try to use the car as little as possible once on site, so most of the time was spent walking out from the site, or driving a few kms to one of the local villages and walking from there.  One glorious day was spent taking the cable-car up from Fuente Dé (included in this report); and another two days driving out of the Deva valley (not included here except in summary); otherwise we didn’t go far.</blockquote>

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