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Lagos de Somiedo

1 acre hosted by Camping S.
Pristine, remote mountain camping in a village so quiet you could safely take a siesta in the middle of the main street
Everywhere with a bit of spare countryside seems to claim that it’s one of Europe’s last pristine wilderness. But in the case of the Parque Natural de Somiedo in the Cordillera Cantábrica mountains of northern Spain, it’s probably true. Why? Because there be bears up here. And not your cuddly Paddington sort either. These guys are the real deal – the kind of sharp-toothed teddies that fancy something a bit meatier than a marmalade sandwich when it’s time for dinner. Mind you, they’re only little, even on their hind legs, so they’re nothing to worry about. The wolves, on the other hand... These furry friends have stuck around in these mountains because there’s honestly very little to vex them here. The area was made a National Park in 1988 and in 2000 was declared a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. The result is a carefully preserved wilderness that is ideal for wildlife; and just perfect, too, for wandering the brañas – high-mountain meadows – with only a Gandalf staff and a half-eaten pack of biscuits to sustain you.

Camping Lagos de Somiedo is up such steep and twisty roads that not that many campers (and even fewer caravanners) make it up here. If you do the journey by car you’ll be clutching for first gear on a couple of the hairpins. The winding roads cling to the sides of these deep limestone valleys and the resulting rock crumble means you’ll have to keep an eye out for rock falls. Sometimes it’s just a slip of pebbledash, but occasionally you’ll find a chunk the size of a half-decent watermelon sitting in the middle of the road.

Luckily you leave the rocks far behind when you arrive at the site, high up in the unspoilt village of Lago. It’s a fairly compact campsite by the side of a small stream which runs down from a nearby lake. Cars are confined to an entrance car park, so the camping area is blissfully free of clutter and there’s plenty of room to spread out and make yourself at home. There’s even a discreet little hideaway patch of ground on its own across the stream, accessed by a rather charming rickety old wooden bridge.

Lago itself is a throwback to an earlier era, the only real signs of modernity being the telephone wires strung from house to house. Spring comes late in these mountains – the trees can still be budding in May and there can even be flurries of snow – but once summer arrives there’s everything that you require for that supreme high-mountain feel: birds of prey wheeling through the skies, cow bells clanking on the hills, lazy dogs and horses blocking the road.

The locals are enthusiastic bee-keepers, so there are plenty of stripy stingers swigging nectar from the flowers and bumbling around drunkenly looking for a dust-up. And then, of course, there are the bears. And the odd wolf. But at least you can console yourself with the thought that they’re likely to be more scared of you than you are of them. Yeah, right.

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Location
33840, SpainTraditional, ancestral territory of various First Nations according to To respect the Host's privacy, the precise address of this land will be provided after booking
Hosted by Camping S.Joined in January 2015
From the host
Pristine, remote mountain camping in a village so quiet you could safely take a siesta in the middle of the main street.
Nearby attractions
Make the 7km walk from the site up to the lake or, if that seems a bit too strenuous take the more relaxing option and see the lake on horseback. El Chugarín (985 763 678) run various rides lasting between 2 and 6 hours in duration and can go directly from the campsite. The ride up to the lake is the 4-hour option and costs a reasonable €30 per person. The ride up to beautiful Braña Sousas takes just 2hrs and is 20€ each.
Food and drink
There’s a dinky little bar on the site, a sort of mountain refuge hut-cum-wine bar, but if you fancy something posher then head down to Pola and enjoy an evening in the restaurant at the Hotel Castillo del Alba (0034 985 763 996), where the food is excellent. For fresh food supplies, there’s always Guillermo’s Supermercado in the village.

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