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in Asturias

Asturias is the green half of Spain, and it photographs nothing like the south. The centre of it for visitors is Covadonga: a neo-Romanesque basilica in pink limestone standing against a wall of mountain, the cave shrine below it, and twelve kilometres of hairpins up to the Lakes of Covadonga, where Enol and La Ercina sit in high pasture with cattle grazing to the water's edge. In summer and at Easter the lake road closes to private cars and a shuttle runs from Cangas de Onís instead, so the timing of a session is planned around the bus rather than the light — check the current dates before booking. Cangas itself has the arched bridge over the Sella with the Cross of Victory hanging under it. East of there the Cares gorge cuts a path into the rock above the river between Poncebos and Caín, one of the most dramatic walks in Spain and a serious one — a session there uses the first kilometre, not the twelve. On the coast, ninety minutes west, Cudillero is a natural amphitheatre of coloured houses around a tiny harbour, and Playa del Silencio is a curve of pebbles below cliffs with rock stacks offshore. The weather is the trade-off: this is a rainy, temperate coast where the fine drizzle even has its own word, orbayu, and where a wet morning usually turns into a bright, saturated afternoon. May to October is the season; late September gives green hills, low cloud and no queues.