- Castrillón Asturias Centre
- Distance: 4 kms
- Difficulty: Short
- Altitude: 17
- Unevenness: 17
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On foot:
1 h. 30 min.
One way
- Start point: San Juan de Nieva Beach
- Tour type: One way
- Layout of the route: Download kml, Download gpx
Without a doubt, this route allows us to get to know an ecosystem that is not very well represented in Asturias, at least as it is shown here, that of the dunes. The Espartal dune system is perhaps the most developed and stable in the region, and here we can see everything from primary dunes to well-established secondary dunes.
Here we can see from the barron, a plant that dominates the secondary dunes, to the brooms ("Cytisus") or willows in the area closest to the road. These dunes are the result of the movement of the sands by the winds and their colonisation by some of these plants capable of adapting to the mobile, dry and salty soil.
At the other end of the Salinas promenade, after seeing the entire beach, the surfers all year round and enjoying the sea breeze, we come to the Anchor Museum, with the bust in homage to Philippe Cousteau and the viewpoint over the sea. If we feel like more, we can take the car to the nearby beach of Arnao and enjoy the Arnao Mine Museum and the fossils on its cliff.
Beach of San Juan de Nieva - Beach of Arnao 4
This short coastal route begins at the beach of San Juan de Nieva, also known as the beach of Espartal. It is a dune system of about 500 metres that was once the largest in Asturias. We can leave our car in the car park of the beach bar we find on the aforementioned beach and start the walk along the footbridge in front of it.
After 800 metres, we turn right and walk further inland, avoiding the road on our left. About 200 metres further on, we turn right again for the same purpose, and continue straight on until we reach kilometre 1.56, where the path forks and we choose to take the branch to the right to reach the Salinas beach promenade a few metres further on, at approximately kilometre 1.7.
Continue along this promenade for another kilometre and a half until you reach the Anchor Museum, located on the peninsula known as La Peñona, at one end of Salinas beach and near the Arnao tunnel. This museum is dedicated to the memory of Philippe Cousteau, son of Jacques-Yves Cousteau, who died in 1979 at the age of 38. At this point we find two viewpoints, which offer us the possibility of enjoying beautiful views.
Once we have visited and enjoyed the museum, we cross the tunnel at kilometre 4 of the route, to leave it after 200 metres and continue on our way along the road, obviously with great care. We are close to the Asturiana de Zinc company.
Once we reach kilometre 4.85, we continue along the road, ignoring the other possible paths that appear on our right. About 200 metres further on, we turn left and then right onto the mine road, which takes us directly to Arnao beach, the end point of our route, and the mine museum that we find close to it.