Hi friends,
First of all, I want to thank 
Those of you who know me through my publications will know that I am a person who loves fishing due to a hobby inherited from my father and specifically fishing from cliffs or from the beach. Specifically, my favorite beach to go fishing is Castello Beach, which is located a few kilometers from my mother's house, on the coast of the Cantabrian Sea, in northern Spain.
Those of you who also read my publications will have noticed that for weeks I am a nomad, traveling around Spain from laboratory to laboratory, giving training in scientific instrumentation or making commercial visits. This work activity has allowed me to travel all over the Spanish geography and as an example I leave you a screenshot of Google Maps of the trip I made today from Ponferrada to Puertollano.
So, yesterday afternoon I was in Ponferrada. A small city located in Castilla y León in the northwest of Spain, contemplating its beautiful Templar castle, but at the time I arrived to Ponferrada it was closed and I could not visit again its interior.
It was then when I decided to drive 30 minutes to the outskirts of Ponferrada and return again to the most beautiful place I had visited in 2022, back in September.
The place in particular is the viewpoint of Orillan, from which you can contemplate the beauty of the largest open pit gold mines of Roman times, and as you see in spring 2023, the place is equally or more spectacular because the green color of the chestnut trees that intertwine with the tufts of rock is more intense despite the fact that it has not been a rainy year in Spain.
To get to this viewpoint of Orellan I am going to indicate the two alternative routes that I have done depending on the time I had available for it.
Long route: La Médulas - La Gran Cueva - Orellan viewpoint hike.
In case you have time and want to do a mountain hike, this is the best option.
I recommend leaving the car parked in a parking lot just outside the village of Las Médulas, with the intention of first visiting the village where you can find peculiar houses and some striking decorations.
Additionally, in the village you can hire a guide, although the routes are very well indicated.
In my case, in the month of September I did the route that goes first to the big cave, which is a 2 km route.
The beginning of the route is very light, with a well paved road and surrounded by vegetation, being the chestnut trees the main protagonists.
In fact, many of these chestnut trees are centenarians.
After the first 200 meters, you leave the asphalt road and begin a dirt road almost flat, done one, is approaching these colossal tufts.
If you look at the next plume, you can see horizontal lines. These lines are the marks of the ancient galleries. These galleries, the Romans, flooded them with water and with it they demolished the slope of the mountain to later separate the gold from the rest of the rock in rafts located below the present situation of the town, in what today is a great lake.
Here is an additional illustration to explain the process.
The last 1000 meters before reaching the large cave are especially hard, as they combine large slopes with a path of loose stones that makes it a success to keep your balance. Therefore, I recommend wearing hiking boots for this route and not as I did with sneakers.
In order to access the large cave, it is necessary to enter with an authorized guide, so you will find the passage closed with ropes. In my case, I jumped over the ropes a few meters to get a better picture of the entrance to the cave.
After visiting the large cave, I continued walking along a path just as steep as the previous one but with some flat stretches surrounded by chestnut trees until I reached the viewpoint and got the prize of the wonderful views.
Short Route: Orellan-Mirador of Orellan
Another alternative to access the viewpoint of Orellan is to park approximately one kilometer from the viewpoint in a parking lot that is enabled for it.
Later, it would remain to ascend that kilometer with an average slope of 15% so it is advisable to wear comfortable shoes.
The road is completely paved and as we ascend to the viewpoint we can contemplate the beauty of the mountain valleys that are in the surroundings.
At the same time, one is spellbound by the play of shadows that makes each slope on the nearest mountain if one ascends late in the afternoon, as was my case.
And the final prize is the same, a great view to the east that allows you to see very beautiful sunsets.
However, as my visit was improvised and nowadays it gets dark almost at 10 pm in Spain, I did not stay until the end of the sunset. So I have one more excuse to come back.
I hope you like this excursion and its views.
Best regards.
This post is my contribution to the #Weekend-Engagement organized by @galenkp.