Here the high wall of the Picos de Europa closes the Liébana valley like a stage curtain. Around Fuente Dé, the road from Potes simply runs out against a cliff, an amphitheatre of grey limestone that rises some eight hundred metres almost straight up. A cable car, the Teleférico de Fuente Dé, climbs that face in a few minutes to the upper station at around 1,800 metres, and from the top you walk out onto a moonscape of karst, scree and old mine workings, with the peaks of the Central Massif all around. On a clear day it is one of the great views of northern Spain. On a cloudy one, you rise through grey fog and step out above a sea of cloud.
The ride in from Potes is a pleasure in its own right. The CA-185 follows the Deva river upstream through the Liébana valley, past villages of stone houses with wooden balconies, small fields and walnut trees, with Camaleño and Espinama along the way. The road is mostly well surfaced and gently climbing, with a few tighter bends near the end, and since it is a dead end you meet traffic going both ways, including coaches in summer. Go early: by late morning in July and August the cable car queue can be hours long and the car park at the end overflows.
Liébana has its own history. It was isolated for centuries, reachable only through the narrow Desfiladero de la Hermida gorge from the coast, and that isolation made it a refuge in the early Middle Ages. The monastery of Santo Toribio de Liébana, just outside Potes, guards what is claimed to be the largest surviving fragment of the True Cross, and it was here, in the eighth century, that the monk Beatus wrote his famous commentary on the Apocalypse, whose illuminated copies are treasures of medieval art. Pilgrims still come, especially in Jubilee years.
The valley has a mild microclimate compared with the coast, warm enough for vines and even olive trees on sheltered slopes. Local specialities include cocido lebaniego, a hearty chickpea stew, and orujo, a fierce grape spirit distilled in copper stills in the villages, celebrated in Potes each November. For fuel, food and supplies, Potes is the place, a busy little town at the junction of the valleys. The villages up the valley have hotels, bars and restaurants, but filling stations are another matter, so arrive with enough in the tank.