The valley of San Jorge It is a small region with its own personality within the municipality of Llanes. Bounded on the east and west by the rivers Bedón and Guadamía, and crossed by the Ereba and San Cecilio rivers, this valley is an extensive plain planted with solitary villages, hamlets and villages, praos, cornfields, oak forests, chestnut trees, walnut trees, streams, beaches and a slender mountain range that serves as a balcony to admire the whole. Populations such as Llames, Garaña, La Pesa, Villanueva, Silviella and Piñeres de Pría, Nueva, Ovio, Picones, Cardoso, Hontoria, Villahormes and Naves, are completely visible from the Picu del Mediodía. But it is that, in addition, the panoramic to our backs does not go to him behind, because we clearly see the kingdom of the Picos de Europa, with the Naranjo de Bulnes as monarch. A 360 degree panorama difficult to match.
The peaks of Europe
In 1918, the first national park in Spain was declared in the Covadonga Mountain, today the National Park of…
The Picu de Mediodía is in the call Sierra de Cueva Negra, which rises on the coastal plain with a steep but friendly profile and extends for eight kilometers between the towns of Santianes (on the banks of the Sella River) and Nueva de Llanes. This mountain range constitutes the first elevation parallel to the Asturian east coast, and after it there follow the cordales that are gaining height until bequeath to the Picos de Europa. Seeing it from sea level, from any point that we find ourselves, even transiting by the highway or the county road, already promises us exceptional views. So we are going to ascend a little to see part of the Asturian territory in all its dimensions.
The maximum altitude that we are going to ascend are 563 meters, exceeding a level of 550 meters. An excursion that will take us 4 30 hours and minutes (round trip) and whose level of difficulty is easy to reach good views, but that becomes moderate if we want to reach the Picu Mediodía goal. This last stretch is less walkable and It is not suitable for children, because it is practically without road, and the mountain is quite taken by cotollas (thorny bushes).
The Route to Picu Mediodía
The start of the same part of a path that goes to the right of the AS-340 at the height of Vallina mill, nothing else to cross the poster of completion of the population of Nueva de Llanes. We must not confuse the road with another entrance between the bridge and this one, which is rather the torrentera of a stream. We have to be gaining height a track that crosses a eucalyptus until we reach a house after which we take a turn of 180 degrees. We are oriented then, following a track on the right with siliceous sand, towards a collada between the peak Rinueva on the left and the peak Maor on the right. Towards the latter we deviate, leaving the track and ascending its slope populated by cotollas. From the ridge, from where we already discovered magnificent views, we took the west following the paths that surround the nearest mound. We reach a hill and from there we reach a pine forest, at the end of which we reach a small forest that we follow along the path to a small meadow from where we begin the ascent to the first of the peaks, the climb is easy. The beautiful view We appreciate that the contiguous peak to the west has a cross. We descend a few meters and from the meadow we take another path towards the Picu Mediodía summit. From there the coastal panorama is splendid, and on clear days we see the entire coastline between Lastres and Llanes, with the Picos de Europa in the background.
The descent is made by the same site.
Text: © Ramón Molleda for asturias.com
