How I fell head over heels in Spain's hidden mountain paradise

Mountain vistas don't get much more sublime than this. We've been climbing toward Urriellu refuge, at the heart of the Picos de Europa ranges, for four hours when I pause to take it all in.

What began as a drizzly, grey day when we left the village of Sotres, our base for the past three nights, has gradually given way to patches, then swathes, of blue sky. Around the surrounding mountains, clouds now bubble up like a churning ocean from the ravine below, hugging the higher peaks, forming thin wreathes along ridges and releasing puffs of cumulus that drift skyward.

What began as a week-long, self-guided UTracks trek in the Picos mountains is now, on day five, turning into an infatuation with this small but spectacular range, located about 25 kilometres from northern Spain's Atlantic coast, and about 220 kilometres west of Bilbao.

Over the past few hours we've hiked up through rolling pastures and across the broad saddle of the Col de Pandebano, at 1240 metres, before following a stony trail rising along the edge of a gaping glacial valley. The higher we've come, the more beguiling has the scenery become, the trail threading along steep silvery-jade slopes then through an otherworldly landscape of misshapen limestone karsts and enormous cracked boulders.

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Up until now, I've been stomping a few hundred metres ahead of my friend Phil and the only other people I've encountered are three mountain runners, hurtling down the trail, flashing greetings as they pound past.

Where I've paused is amid a rubble of serrated rocky outcrops and above me, framed by a blue hole in the cloud, is the 2519-metre Urriellu peak - at the foot of which we are staying tonight - rising like a giant standing stone.

I'm still ogling the 360-degree views when Phil catches up with me.

"I'm smitten," I confess.

"Just phenomenal," agrees my friend.

While the dramatic scenery in this central Picos massif has sealed the deal, I credit two other factors for my crush on these mountains. First, the gentle five-day road trip through the Basque country and Cantabria (see below) it took to get here. Second, the carefully planned UTracks itinerary that has helped us gradually get to know these ranges and the Asturias region they largely stand within.

We begin with two nights at the village of Arenas de Cabrales, in the foothills, staying at the lovely riverside Hotel Picos de Europa. We settle in here with dinner at nearby Cafe Restaurant Cabrales where even a grumpy waiter cannot spoil our four-course feast, including clams in a spicy tomato broth and a moreish Flan de Queso dessert, which tastes like the love child of a cheesecake and a creme caramel.

Our first walk, the next morning, is an easy 3.5-hour loop out of Arenas, rising out of the valley through farmlands before descending to a hamlet called Poo de Cabrales and returning via the river bank.

On our second day, while our luggage is transferred to our next accommodation in Sotres, one of the Picos's highest villages, we are dropped at a small collection of houses and barns called Tielve to start a 8.6-kilometre trek to our new home. This tracks across open heathland covered in gorse and wild flowers, before ascending through old beech forest to an antennae atop a hill, from where we drop down into Sotres.

Once a busy mining town serving an area full of zinc, lead and manganese deposits, Sotres is now a somnolent rural centre, its few hotels and cafes sustained by trekking groups and Spaniards escaping the summer heat elsewhere.

For the next three nights we are staying in the homely, family-run Hotel Sotres, with breakfast and dinner, including hearty "Fabadas Asturiana" bean and chorizo stews, provided in the downstairs restaurant.

From Sotres, UTracks incrementally ups the ante with longer, more challenging walks each day.

On day three, we are grateful for the excellent "ActiveNav" app they've provided, as we follow an old mining road up towards a formidable limestone peak and reach the snowline, between 1650 and 1800 metres, in swirling cloud. Even with no phone coverage, the app shows our route on an interactive map, provides step-by-step instructions and sounds an alarm when we stray offtrack. Today it helps us navigate through a strange moon-like landscape wrapped in mist, across patches of icy snow which hide the trail and over a high saddle as we return to Sotres.

Completing this 12.6-kilometre trek gives us confidence to tackle the climb to the refuge two days later.

The following morning's walk leads us through meadows and zig-zags up open hillsides splattered with wild flowers and splintered karst, with views stretching back into the gorge. The trail then enters woods echoing with birdsong before reaching another old mining track rising towards a plateau, from where we descend again to Sotres between milky-white outcrops, completing the 12-kilometre walk in 4.5 hours.

The best thing about these four early walks, apart from developing our fitness, is that they are normally finished by early afternoon, allowing us to recuperate over lunch, a glass of Asturian cider and a game of Scrabble at the friendly Hotel Rural Casa Cipriano. There's time too to take in the local cheese outlet, Queseria Main, and to be shown how the blue-veined "Queso Cabrales" is made, blending cow, sheep and goat milk.

Our time in Sotres has laid the groundwork for our 1085-metre ascent to the mountain hut, at the foot of the Urriellu peak, on our penultimate day, and for an evolving connection with the Picos. The higher we get, cutting across slopes of grey scree and past the occasional chamois - doughty goat-antelopes grazing on tufts of mountain grass - the more headily attached I feel to it all.

Yet, nearing the refuge, it has begun to hail and we're getting cold, so it is reassuring to see its sturdy facade appear ahead.

I'd been apprehensive about bedding down in the hut's communal-style dorms, which sleep up to 100, but I needn't have worried. In mid-May, we are first to arrive and over the next few hours are joined by only six others, German sisters Teresa and Stephanie, a young Swiss couple and, finally, an intrepid English pair who have used ropes to cross a crevasse and waded through waist-deep snow to get here.

As we all huddle by a fire, chat flows easily and it continues over a warming dinner of thick pea soup and penne bolognese, cooked by the refuge caretakers.

On our final morning we wake to radiant blue skies and the most unexpurgated views of the Picos so far, with the broad face of Urriellu looming above the refuge and jagged peaks arrayed all around a seemingly fathomless gorge, into which we are about to walk.

It takes us just 90 minutes to retrace yesterday's four-hour climb, arriving at the grassy col de Pandebano once more then descending along the edge of the gorge and crisscrossing streams on muddy tracks, en route to the village of Bulnes.

We are now only 2.5 kilometres away from the pretty mountain village, which can only be reached on foot or via a steep funicular railway, opened in 2001, and I'm speeding along, driven by thoughts of an early lunch in the sunshine.

However, the path is slippery and my haste imprudent. With one misstep I am sent sprawling forward, wrenching my right ankle and bouncing on my knee before face-planting into the squelchy footpath.

Right in front of the lovely German sisters, who have caught us up.

I'm contemplating my indignity when the pain starts, running up my right leg like an electric shock. Even with Phil kindly shouldering my pack and the use of his walking poles, it takes me two tortuous hours to complete the descent to Bulnes, where I can finally rest over a waterside lunch of croquettes and papatas bravas. From here it is a hobble to the funicular and 20-minute taxi ride to Arenas de Cabrales, where the trek began six days ago.

Painful though it is, at least my fall comes almost at the finish of our trek and my sprained ankle does nothing to dent my ardor for these mountains. In fact, by the end, you could say that I have fallen head over heels for the spectacular Picos de Europa.

Trekking in the Picos mountains is one part of a northern Spain adventure, which is bracketed by a road trip through the Basque Country and along the Cantabrian coast.

After rendezvousing with my pal Phil, who has driven down from England in his zippy Mini Cooper, we begin in the seaside resort of Donostia San Sebastian. With 16 Michelin-star restaurants, the largest concentration per capita of anywhere in the world, this is the city in which to sample the Basque region's outstanding cuisine.

"Food is our way to be, it's our way to socialise," our guide Ana Lopez tells us on our whirlwind San Sebastian tour, "it's our lifestyle."

It's a rainy Monday night - backed by Basque mountains and ranged along the Bay of Biscay, San Sebastian is Spain's wettest city - but it is standing room only in every pintxos bar we visit. Pintxos are this region's tapas dishes, snacks served on cocktail sticks and accompanied by a glass of local cider, or txakoli white wine.

Tonight, wandering the Old Town's alleyways, we have tried a few varieties, starting with bread topped with spicy chorizo and stuffed peppers in a traditional bar, before moving on to Casa Urola for "nouvelle" pintxos that include scallop in an almond sauce and artichoke in pumpkin puree. We end the night in the heaving Bar Martinez, which has been serving pintxos since 1942, grazing on fried anchovy, breaded cod cheeks and a delicious duck brochette glazed with balsamic, as conversation shifts from food to politics to football.

The next morning the sun is out and we stroll along the city's broad esplanade with its hardy Tamarix trees and ornate lampposts. After much of its centre burnt down in 1813, it evolved, like Biarritz, as a popular resort for Europe's aristocracy, characterised by wide avenues lined with neo-classical buildings. In 1845, it received royal assent when a young Queen Isabella II came, during a troubled reign that included civil war with her uncle, to "take the waters" to help ease her skin conditions.

San Sebastian remains a ritzy seaside town, known for its annual film and jazz festivals and set behind three huge beaches, including surfing favourite Zurriola, or "little California", and merits longer than we spend here.

Our next stop is 70 kilometres along the Basque coast, at Zumaia, where we stay behind a beach framed by dramatic, striated flysch rock formations, dating back more than 100 million years. The one-star Zelai Thalassotherapy Hotel here is excellent, with sea views, good set-dinner and several bubbling thermal pools in the basement.

As we drive west through the Basque Country, we wind through farmlands and forested hills crowding a coastline full of battered cliffs, sandy coves and fishing towns, like Lekeitio, where we have lunch the following day beside a boat-filled harbour.

We now track inland to Gernika, the subject of one of Picasso's most powerful paintings, which depicts the devastation wrought on the town when it was bombed, by fascist General Franco's allies, during the Spanish Civil War. The bombing, on April 26, 1937, killed 1654, destroyed 85 per cent of the town's buildings and made Gernika synonymous with Basque resistance and independence.

The Peace Museum here movingly tells the story of the town and the day the bombs came, alongside other anti-war exhibits. Also unmissable is the Biscay region Assembly Hall, set above the town beside a symbolic old oak tree - which provided a meeting place for local landowners since the Middle Ages - and featuring a remarkable stained-glass ceiling, illustrating Basque history.

The hills seem more velvety here, crouching behind the Cantabrian sea, and we spend our next night near the coast in the quiet village of Somo, at the pleasant four-star Hotel Torres.

On our final day before our trek, we head further west, beyond Santander, to take in "Gaudi's Caprice" in the spa resort of Comillas. This three-storey mansion, created for a rich lawyer, is an early example of Catalan architect Antoni Gaudi's genius, dating to the 1880s. It's an exotic delight, from its facade full of moulded sunflowers to its Persian-style tower complete with minarets, to its interior coffered ceilings, elaborate doors and stained-glass windows, featuring typical Gaudi natural symbolism such as birds and palm trees.

On either side of our Picos trek we drive to the Covadonga Lakes, on the mountains' western flank. On our first visit, they are atmospherically blanketed in low cloud. On our second, after reuniting with Phil's mini at Arenas, where we began our trek, it is a sunny day and the waterways are a captivating sight, shimmering in a bowl created by the mountains and surrounded by meadows.

Leaving behind the mountains on our final day, we have one final assignment on the Cantabrian coast: an al fresco seafood paella lunch behind the beach at Noja.

From Noja, it is just an hour's drive to the port of Bilbao to board the new ship Santona, run by Brittany ferries, which over the next 27 hours will transport us back to Portsmouth, England. With an ensuite, four-berth cabin and access to the ferry's excellent Commodore lounge for meals and drinks, this is a relaxing way to end our odyssey through northern Spain.

While Phil and I have done many trips together, we both agree, as we watch dolphins skip through the Atlantic ahead of the ship, that it's been the combination of our scenic coastal drive and our intimate exploration of the Picos mountains, on foot, that makes this one of the best travel experiences we've had.

Getting there: Brittany Ferries offers regular crossings between Portsmouth, England, and Bilbao. One-way passage, including four-berth outside cabin, lounge passes and vehicle carriage, costs £654 ($1280). brittany-ferries.co.uk

The closest airports to this Picos trek are Oviedo, Santander or Bilbao. Lufthansa has flights from Sydney and Melbourne to Bilbao International airport, via Singapore and Munich. lufthansa.com/au/en

It is approximately two hours' drive from Bilbao to Arenas de Cabrales, where the trek starts.

Staying there: Zelia Hotel, Zumaia, has rooms from $145 per twin per night. Hotel Torres, Somo, has rooms from $139 per twin per night. talasoterapiazelai.com; hoteltorresdesomo.com

On foot: UTracks' self-guided Picos de Europa walking trip costs from $1190 per person and includes six nights in two- to three-star family-run hotels, one night in a mountain hut, seven breakfasts, four dinners and luggage transfers. UTracks.com

On the road: Europcar offers car hire from Bilbao airport from $65 a day, $455 per week. europcar.com.au

Explore more: tourism.euskadi.eus; spain.info

The writer was a guest of UTracks, Brittany Ferries and assisted by Turespana.

Pictures: Getty Images; Daniel Scott