16 th Sept Finding the source of the river Cuervo

Once again having the car gives us a chance to explore the local protected environment so we headed further into the mountains to find some waterfalls and the source of the River Cuervo. The area is a protected environment with wild bears, wolves, boars, deer, squirrels and pine martens. There are eagles and vultures too. We can say confidently we saw an eagle and a red and a black squirrel and deer but no bears and wolves. We kept making these jokes about occasional bears being squirrel when they weren’t bears. The road to the falls was winding through tall pine trees and deep ravines and really quite beautiful and remote. We arrived at the falls and they were a bit underwhelming this late in the season though moody and mossy. The stream was so clear we could see the fish easily. They looked like trout. As we followed the stream deeper into the valley we eventually halted at a spot where water was coming through a tree root and essentially a fissure in the cliff. It was a gentle but significant flow. I have never ever been at the source of a river. It seemed quite magical.

We meandered back through forest and retired to a cafe for lunch. It was very good and a little different to the usual ensalada mixte. We ventured to Trajacete for petrol. Petrol station closed for siesta so we had to kill time by exploring the town and sheltering from a rain shower in a bar where we played trivia quiz games till the petrol station opened. The shop ( that did have a sign ) did not open as advertised so we settled for petrol and returned to Los Majadas. Trajaceta was a well heeled town with a bank no less and must be the centre for tourism in the area because it had a huge centre for interpretation of the environment. It looked defunct but we assume Covid might have caused it’s closure and it will reopen. Lots of restaurants here and pretty squares.

Finally returned to Los Majadas and capped off the day with rain and a beautiful rainbow.