Etapa 1: Panes - Alles

Go to Image Stage 1: Panes - Alles
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GR109 - Inland Asturias - Stage 1

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Stage 1: Panes - Alles
GPS: 43.32752486447081, -4.586241247044029

Panes - Robriguero - Bores - Mier - Besnes - Alles

Panes - Alles 17,85

The route starts in Panes, a town with a great bowling tradition, capital of the council of Peñamellera Baja, and continues eastwards over the foothills of the Sierra del Cuera, passing through various small rural villages, crossing several rivers and passing through a great diversity of trees, to end up in the town of Alles, capital of Peñamellera Alta.

In the square of Panes is the Asturian Bowling Museum, a very ancient game with a great tradition in the Cantabrian strip, with special importance in Asturias and Cantabria. The Bowling Museum is the first in Spain dedicated to this traditional sport and was inaugurated in April 2003, promoted by the Picu Peñamellera bowling club. The Bowling Museum is part of the Ethnographic Museum of the East, located in Porrúa (Llanes), and has an extensive collection (more than a thousand pieces), being the only Spanish museum dedicated to indigenous bowling games.

The stage begins in the car park of the Panes botanical garden, to the left of the signpost at the start of the path. From the sign, follow the directional markings painted on the lampposts and the wooden railing. The first sections run along the alluvial plain of the lower stretch of the River Deva. Several explanatory panels of the botanical garden, located along the first few metres of the path, will allow us to interpret the plant landscape of the Picos de Europa region.

After crossing a small wooden bridge on the left of the path, you will come to the church of San Juan de Ciliergo, built between the 12th and 13th centuries and in a poor state of repair. The church, which was burnt down in 1936, lacks a roof and only has the triumphal arch with the side walls still standing. At the front there is a large belfry adorned with a pediment with a carved stone cross. A few metres further on, the path comes out onto the asphalted road N-621, so we must take extreme caution.

The Nature Trail crosses the river Deva over the first bridge on the right and continues gently up the valley of the river Cares, from where we have a panoramic view of the river with the Pica Peñamellera in the background and the Sierra del Cuera mountain range, which is usually snow-capped in winter. At this point, the gravel road crosses the rural village of Tobes, where the church of San Pedro is located, and a little further on, it takes the turning to the left towards Bores, located on the slopes of the Pica Peñamellera. Both rural settlements are located between meadows bounded by limestone walls, dotted with copses of trees and rocky outcrops. In the vicinity, there are also Atlantic holm oak groves(Quercus ilex and Quercus rotundifolia), protected by regional legislation and classified as being of special interest. In Bores, the route ascends between meadows and farms dotted with traditional huts.

Leaving Pica Peñamellera always to the right, the dirt track descends by Collada Ardines, from where you can see Mier, a rural village crossed by the river Cares on the slopes of El Llambrial, and broadleaf forests. Leaving Mier behind, the path continues along a limestone slope just a few metres from the Cares, so we must take extreme precautions in this part. In the village of Mier, it is recommended that cyclists continue along the road crossing the Cares River over the access bridge to Mier (local road PA-1) and turn right onto the AS-114 until the junction with the AS-345, where they rejoin the signposted route.

The path then crosses the suspension bridge at Niserias and continues along the asphalted road AS-345 to Besnes, where the dirt track climbs slightly between copses of chestnut trees(Castanea sativa), hazelnut trees(Corylus avellana) and oak trees(Quercus robur), on the banks of the river Besnes, until it reaches Alles, the end of the route.