Hotel Puerta Del Oriente

BUELNA, CARRANZO, AND TRESGRANDAS

by AsturArcadia

Towards the end of 2008 work started on the missing bit of the Autovía del Cantábrico, the motorway which runs along the north coast between Bilbao, Santander and Oviedo/Gijón. This is the controversial stretch of about 20 km, between Unquera, on the border between Cantabria and Asturias, and Llanes. Controversial for several reasons - it traverses an area of great natural beauty, and the route finally selected involcves the demolition of a cluster of houses on the edge of Bustio, the village on the Asturian side of the Deva, just across the latter river from Unquera. Apparently under the compulsory purchase order, the householders are being offered compensation of just 40,000 euros per property. There are not many houses available at that price in Asturias nowadays - not even in the villages in the mining 'cuencas'!

The N-634 coast road, the predecessor to the motorway, was rebuilt and realigned on various occasions in the past. The stretch from Torrelavega to San Vicente de la Barquera dates from the mid-nineteenth century, and its sinuous curves on hills, designed to aid horse-drawn traffic, were straightened outin the 1960s and early 1970s, when various three-lane sections were also built. In the early 1970s a completely new limited access single carriageway road was built from La Arquera, south of Llanes, to Llovio, south of Ribadesella, neatly by-passing these two fishing ports. One can have a good deal of fun trying to trace the alignment of the original main road, where this is no longer used by vehicular traffic. The crossing of the Cabra stream, between La Franca and Santiuste, is especially interersting, since the original bridge survives, some way upstream of the 1970s main road viaduct and the bridge that was used following the realignments of the pre-Civil War era, when Colombres wass also by-passed. The motorway reached Unquera from the east just aftrer the turn of the millennium, changing the rural landscape formidably as it evolved, while the road from La Arquera to Llovio was transformed into a dual carriageway in the late 1990s. The great lump of hillside just west of the Bedón viaduct overlooking the Playa de San Antolín objected at having yet more of its north-facing flank amputated, holding up work there for a couple of years. Here the motorway has a 100 km/h speed limit on the curve. Meanwhile, the metre gauge railway burrows under what remains of the bluff in a modest tunnel. The civil engineers of over a century ago had more sense than to cruelly demolish Nature's bastions.

And so to these first three photos, taken in Buelna, from just above the busy N-634, looking north over the village, towards the sea. Where I am standing, at the start of the lane over the 200 m high Sierra Plana de la Borbolla, the motorway will run. Locals will not be spared the roar of the traffic. At least one house, now boarded up, will be demolished. The vegetation is being cleared (January 2009), very soon the heavy earth-moving (and rock-moving) equipment will move in.

Moving the camera a little to the right, to focus on the mansions just east of the church. You may be able to see some of the vegetation clearance in the foreground.

The motorway is a necessary evil. It will remove the endless streams of traffic (including innumerable HGVs) from villages like Buelna, Vidiago and San Roque de Acebal (though local businesses in the latter hamlet will suffer). In summer the volume of traffic is so great that it starts developing queues as it is funnelled from four lanes to two. But, for how long will a motorway be necessary? Two, possibly three decades, at the most? I hope - but I doubt - that those planning the new road have considered its future transformation into a high speed railway - the AVE del Cantábrico - when the Age of Oil draws to its close.

A bit further up the road over the hills., this time looking northwest over part of Pendueles.

In the Travelogues, we continue into the Valle Oscuru, to Carranzo and Tresgrandas.

CARRANZO AND TRESGRANDAS

by AsturArcadia

A rooftop view of Carranzo, the Cuera in the background.

If you've explored a number of my pages, you'll know by now that I love rooftop views of Asturian villages.

If you own an old Asturian house, you'll probably be amazed - and impressed - by the way those ancient roofs are built, too. One fine, sunny day I'll take some photos of the interior of our attic and 'cuadra' to illustrate this point.

A novel way of feeding the birds. The bread is behind a wire mesh, and held in position by the window. No need for a pecking order . . .

Oranges ready for picking. Those that grow on the north coast are rather bitter - fine for marmalade, but not always that wonderful to eat raw.

From Carranzo along the lane to Tresgrandas, which, being only a short drive from the beach at La Franca, has suffered from a small amount of low rise housing estate development on its eastern flanks.

What a lovely old house (this and the next photo) . . .

The south-facing 'corredor' is a wonderful architectural feature, and so practical, especially for drying and airing washing when the sun shines. On a grey day in winter, be prepared for exterior temperatures there, though. Ditto at night!

VALLE OSCURU AND CARRANZO

by AsturArcadia

The Valle Oscuru - Dark Valley - is in fact a broad trough between the Sierra Plana de la Borbolla and the great Sierra de Cuera, drained at its eastern end by the Cabra and at its western one by the Dovedal and Purón. 'Oscuru' is something of a misnomer. The depression is sufficiently broad, even in mid-winter, to receive plenty of sunlight, in spite of the great height and steep slopes of the Cuera. It is a pastoral valley rather than a wooded one, except at its western end, where there are eucalyptus plantations. Elsewhere, the eucalyptus is confined (thankfully) to the slopes of the Sierra Plana. West of Purón a higher trough separates the main ridge of the Cuera from its northern bulwark, running as far west as El Mazuco, of Civil War fame. This trough is roadless, and being deep within limestone country, it is a maze of blind valleys, troughs, holes, and Heaven knows what else. At its western end you can even hear the streams running underground!

This view was taken on the road from Buelna, on the descent from the Sierra Plana, looking southwest towards the 1,179 summit of Cerro Liño. In the foreground the eucalyptus. A nasty tree, imported from Australasia in the mid-1800s, first to an estate near Puente San Miguel in Cantabria. Large scale plantations were created from the 1940s onwards, radically chasnging the appearance of the landscape. The trees are cropped every eight to ten years. Some of the timber ends up in the SNIACE cellulose works in Torrelavega, a lot of it is used for floorboards and suchlike. The horrible thing about eucalyptus is that it encourages a wilderness undergrowth - impenetrable - and it is very difficult to get rid of, should one wish to change the land use. A parasite tree. Nevertheless, ancient, individual eucalyptuses, such as are found on many private estates, can look quite dignified. Their young plantation bretheren, of limited lifespan, are another matter altogether!

Looking southeast along the Valle Oscuru from Carranzo towards Noriega and Villanueva de Colombres, at the eastern end of the Sierra de Cuera.

Let's explore Carranzo!

While many folk in rural areas still keep poultry, the practice of keeping a communal pig in the village for slaughter each autumn (a different pig each year, of course) would appear to be dying out. What a pity!

More views of Carranzo . . .

In the next Travelogue we move on from Carranzo to Tresgrandas.