Day 2 – Refugio di Rabadá y Navarro to Riodeva

I woke after a good nine hours of sleep to find the sky overcast and grey. However, sunnier weather was forecast for later. The refuge manager was nowhere to be seen that morning, but his girlfriend prepared me an excellent breakfast along with a picnic for midday. There was a little confusion at one point when I asked for some milk as she had served me a bowl of cornflakes. I don’t know if people in Spain eat their cornflakes dry but she didn’t seem to understand that I wanted to pour the milk into the bowl and served it to me in a cup.

I set off at around nine, much later than I usually start a day’s hiking, but this is Spain and it’s hard to get breakfast before 8:30. This second stage would take me from the Rabadá y Navarro refuge to the village of Riodeva, where I would have another night in a similar style of accommodation. With just 200 m to climb, this would be a day of descents, punishing ones at times, for a total of 760 m downhill.

And it started from the refuge with a steep and occasionally slippery 200 m descent to the valley below, before a 200 m climb up the other side at first on a dirt track, then along a hiking path over stony, uneven terrain where the GR10 trail markings were hard to follow at times. I lost my way in one very rocky area where the markings had faded away completely, but Komoot helped me get back on track.

This took me up to a point from which the rest of the day would be spent heading downhill, on gentle inclines at times, on much steeper ones at others. The next couple of kilometres were along a road, which came as a bit of a relief as it was obviously much easier to follow than the trail across the rocky terrain during the climb.

Shortly after a huge farm, which would be the only sign of human presence all day until I got to Riodeva, the trail veered off the road to follow a valley lined with abandoned dwellings. There had clearly been some farming activity in the valley long ago, but all of the buildings were now little more than ruins.

The trail headed gently downhill, on narrow stony paths at times, on broad forest tracks at others. It was relatively easy walking, even though the stones were a hassle as usual. And, of course, I ended up flat on my back at one point when the stones slid beneath one of my feet. The only damage done was to my pride.

After a while, I reached a large area set out with picnic tables at the top of the gorge heading down to Riodeva. It was a wonderful spot in a shady pine forest so I took my lunch break there, devouring the delicious ham and egg sandwich that the lady at the refuge had prepared for me as part of my picnic package. There was a fantastic waterfall right by the picnic spot and, above it, some impressive rock formations.

It was on leaving this rest stop that the gentle descent turned into a much steeper and even hellish one. The trail was a very narrow and rocky, high above the gorge below. There was a variant at one point that included a via ferrata section but I thought it was best to avoid that with something like 13 kg on my back. Even so, the trail I followed had a few hairy sections with fixed cables and metal steps at points.

And there was even one horrific bit with another fixed cable that I descended parts of on my backside!

It came as a huge relief to see the yellow GR trail signpost below that indicated the spot where the variant met up with my trail again, as it marked the end of the descent. From there the trail headed gently downhill, albeit as stony as before, towards an old mill. There, I made a stop to recover from the descent and get rehydrated with some sweet, fresh water from the stream.

There was one last tricky section into Riodeva with the trail having clearly been washed away by a flash flood, much like the gully I had needed to climb on the first day, but this was a very short section and I was over it in no time.

The final approach to Riodeva was a delight along a shady track, passing the locals’ vegetable gardens, the air filled with the sound of birdsong and the babbling of the stream to one side. The fields were filled with poppies and a cool, pleasant breeze was blowing.

I didn’t go into Riodeva that day as I was staying in a hostel located on a hill just outside the town, near a pretty church. The views from the spot were fantastic. When I arrived, the whole place was closed. The municipal swimming pool that I had been looking forward to taking a dip in was empty. I panicked for a second as this was one of the few places that I had booked directly and wasn’t able to find the email confirmation right away. Fortunately, after a few minutes of searching, I found the confirmation along with a phone number. So I called to say I was there and, a few minutes later, a very dynamic lady called Nieves turned up to open the place for me. Thanks to my limited Spanish, I understood that I had to wait an hour or so before taking a shower as she had only just put the water heater on, that I wouldn’t be alone in the hostel as a group would be arriving later (even though I had a four bedroom to myself) and that she would be back later to cook dinner for everyone.

The hot water situation didn’t really bother me as I only take cold showers, so I went up to my room, showered, changed and then went back down to sit in the sun on the terrace. Nieves came back about an hour later and served me a beer while she set about preparing dinner with a vengeance. She was a real human dynamo, continually on the move, setting up tables for dinner, cooking, and serving at the bar to a few locals who had come up for a drink. The group staying at the hostel, around 15 Spanish people on a weekend trip to the mountains, arrived at about 7 PM. They seemed very friendly, but communication was haphazard to say the least. The dinner that Nieves produced was excellent: a huge salad, cod brandade, roast pork in a delicious tomato sauce and, surprisingly, a lemon Cornetto to round it off. Accommodation for the night, this great dinner and breakfast the next morning cost me the princely sum of €41. Not a bad deal at all!