Home / The thirty days / Galicia and Asturias / Into a cabrales cave in the Picos
Limestone, a steady draught, and cheese left to work
Cold draught coming out of limestone is the reason people reserve a cheese cave day in the Picos de Europa
From $192 per person, in Galicia and Asturias. Eight hours, 08:30 to 16:30, with the cave itself somewhere in the middle of them. This day needs eight people to run. Below that number the walk still happens and the cave does not, so we tell you a fortnight out whether the eight are there, and never later than that.
| Starts from | Arenas de Cabrales, Spain |
|---|---|
| Hours | 08:30 to 16:30 |
| Runs when | needs eight |
| One person pays | from $192 |
| Part of | Galicia and Asturias |
Eight hours, valley floor to cave
You are collected in the valley at 08:30 and driven forty minutes up a single track road with passing places, which is the part people remember for the wrong reasons. From the road head it is an hour on foot up a stone track, about two hundred and fifty metres of climb, to a cave mouth in the hillside that looks like nothing at all until you are inside it. In there are wooden racks, several hundred cheeses at every age, and a draught that never stops moving. The man who turns and brushes them does that work in front of you and answers questions while his hands keep going. You are down by two, eat in the village, and are back where you started at 16:30.
Cold air, low ceilings, wet floor
The climb is steady rather than steep and there is nothing technical on it, but it is an hour up and forty minutes down on loose stone, and the track is wet in every month of the year. Inside the cave the ceiling drops below head height in two places and the floor is slick limestone with a slope on it. It sits between eight and twelve degrees with the air moving, so it feels colder than the number, and people who came up warm from the walk are cold within ten minutes. Bring a layer you have not sweated into and shoes with a real edge. Anyone who dislikes a confined space should know the working part is one chamber with one way in and out.
Price, and what sits outside it
The $192 per person holds the drive up and back, the hour with the family that keeps the cave, what you are given to taste off the racks, and a plate of food in the village afterwards. It does not hold your bed, your travel into the region, anything you buy to take home, or cover of any kind, which this office does not sell. Because the day needs eight people, the figure does not change with any number above eight; it simply does not run below it. If it does not run you owe nothing, because you will not have paid us anything at any point. The family that keeps the cave bills you directly, in its own name, after the day has happened.
Awkward things people ask about this day
- Will the cave open if only six of us book?
- No, and we will tell you that a fortnight before rather than on the morning. Eight is the number the family will open the cave for, because the climb up costs them the same whether it is six people or twelve. If your group is smaller, say so early and we will hold your names against a date that already carries five or six, which happens most weeks between May and October.
- Can we buy cheese to carry home?
- Yes, at the door, and it is your own purchase rather than a line in the figure. What you cannot do is carry it home in the cabin without thinking first, because it is a soft cheese and it argues with the rules on what you may bring. That is a question for whoever is flying you, not for us. Ask the family for a piece sealed under vacuum and keep it cold on the way down.
- Can we help make the cheese ourselves?
- No. It is a food business under inspection, and a stranger's hands among the racks would end that, so nobody touches the cheeses except the family. You stand two metres from the work and watch it done properly, which is closer than most dairies will let anyone stand. If making cheese with your own hands is the point of the trip, that is a different day in a different valley, and we do not sell it.
The other five days near this one
Two days that look close on a map are not always joinable in one week, and the office will say so plainly instead of selling you the pair anyway.
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from $154 per person needs four -
from $180 per person needs eight -
from $214 per person private only -
from $122 per person runs whatever the numbers -
from $134 per person runs whatever the numbers
Hold this day and add others to it
Booking a day here means the office holds your place with whoever runs that day on the ground, and their invoice reaches you directly once the dates stop moving.