La Hermida Gorge

The Desfiladero de la Hermida gorge is truly breathtaking and a little nerve-wracking when you drive through it for the first time. The narrow N261 road twists along the bottom of the gorge for about 21 km, crossing the Rio Deva several times and passing through the tiny spa of La Hermida. There are few safe stopping places where you can pull completely off the road. In some sections of the gorge you have to observe minimum speed limits. There are mostly two lanes, but give way to trucks and coaches that sometimes need the full width of the road. We drove through the gorge four times in all; on a day trip to Santillana and at the start and end of our stay.
 

We stopped at Urdón on our return from Santillana. We knew this was a good site for birds of prey and there is a safe parking place off the road on a track leading to a hydro-electric power station. The track marks the start of the walk to the remote mountain village of Tresviso. There were Grey Wagtails in the in the stream below the power station. It looks like a good site for Dipper, but we didn't see any.

We scanned the mountains and saw Griffon Vulture and Alpine Chough. We glimpsed a large bird of prey above the ridge to the east, but it was too distant for us to identify it confidently. We drove a little further up the gorge in the direction of La Hermida and pulled the car off the road. From here we were able to identify the large bird as a Golden Eagle. We were delighted with this; we knew they could be seen in the gorge but were not common. We pressed on and stopped again in a car park to the north of La Hermida. At the time, this car park was being used as a builder's yard. From here we had close and extended views of the Golden Eagle. We noticed that La Hermida has a couple of hotels and restaurants. We met another couple who were staying in a Pension in La Hermida, which they had found both cheap and comfortable.
 

We took a final drive down the Gorge at the end of our stay, stopping at a view point just after the turn off to Lebaña. Here we were treated to the amazing view of about 30 Griffon Vultures soaring in the thermals to the southwest.