We disembarked the 'Galicia' at around 0800 Spanish time on the morning of 28th June and were soon heading west along the A-8 for about 157km before turning south on the N-621 up into the mountains towards the town of Potes, near where we were staying. We couldn't check in until 1500 so took the journey easy, stopping for groceries and a few photos along the way. Extensive roadworks between Panes and Potes - apparently necessary to replace sections of the road through sheer mountain gorges which had been damaged by storms - also contributed to the slower pace, though to be fair, the manual traffic management controls by workers with walkie-talkies seemed much more effective than traffic lights at minimising any delays.
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| First view of the mountains of Northern Spain from the ferry approaching Bilbao |
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| First view of the Picos from the roadworks below Potes |
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| Our holiday accommodation at Viviendas Rurales El Covaju |
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| Rhinoceros Beetle, Covaju |
On arrival it became apparent that Claire had done a good job in sourcing our accommodation at the Vivendas Rurales de Covaju - a rather grand end of terrace building with thick stone walls which kept the lower 2 floors pretty cool - an important consideration as we arrived to catch the last few days of the continental heatwave which took even the locals by surprise. The only downside was that our master bedroom on the wooden clad 2nd floor was extremely hot! But with a shared pool in which to cool off there were no serious complaints.
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| Speckled Wood, Covaju |
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| Marbled White, Covaju - this looks more like Marbled White than Iberian Marbled White and my books suggest that the ranges may overlap |
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| Clouded Yellow, Covaju |
By the time we arrived it was a bit late for any serious excursions so I set off on foot to check out the immediate surroundings. The first highlight was bumping into an enormous Rhinoceros Beetle on the track to the cottage but my joy at this quickly turned to horror as another newly arrived holiday maker promptly reversed over it! A promising looking route up a lane to the north was soon abandoned due to an encounter with an aggressive, unchained dog - a regular feature of the area, it turned out. So I headed south to look for butterflies on a sun-drenched verge instead. Within a few minutes I'd seen a few common species plus Clouded Yellow, Long-tailed Blue and my first Short-tailed Blue - a promising start to the holiday butterfly list.
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| Short-tailed Blue, Cabezon de Liebana |
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| Short-tailed Blue, Cabezon de Liebana |
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| Long-tailed Blue, Cabezon de Liebana |
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| Long-tailed Blue, Cabezon de Liebana |
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