Day 15 - A Mountain drive


The cloud takes no time to lift this morning and there are the bluest spring skies. The birds are singing, the sheep are bleating and there are cow bells everywhere! It’s like something from an alpine story book. No one around still, the hotel is closed up and there are no shops but we have enough bread for toast and jam with our coffee. 

A quick shower (€3 extra but steaming hot and well worth it!) and we head off once more. This is another place that it’s hard to leave and we hope to return here one day, though I doubt we’d ever have it so quiet again. 

We are going to make our way back towards the coast now. There are a number of ‘slow road’ choices but following a suggestion in Martin Dorey’s book we are going for the slowest of all heading up and over the mountains on our way. 

A quick stop in Cangas del Narcea first as our cupboards are very depleted and the supermarket there is likely to be the only one we pass today. It seems to be a bit of a scruffy town beside the wide Narcea river but we probably don’t see the best of it by just going to the ‘Dia’on the edge of town. 



Back on the road and at Puente del Infierno we turn on to the mountain road. It’s definitely more springlike now. Many of the trees have new leaves and there are flowers everywhere with the heather on the hills looking bright pink. 


We pass through a few hamlets and another smaller town Pola de Allende before the climb gets steeper and more precipitous. The mountains are ‘softer’ than the rocky ones of the Picos but skies are blue, visibility is great and the views are stunning if a little daunting at times when you suffer with vertigo

At the top of the pass there is a small electric plant associated with the line of wind turbines and a picnic area with 360 views. There are several horses grazing, a pond filled with tadpoles and skylarks calling overhead. 

Now the weather is improving I’m getting very fed up with being held to ransom by a dodgy knee but I’m still being sensible and I wait in the picnic area whilst Graham walks ‘Del Oro a las Estrellas’ to the summit seeing yet more viewpoints along its length. 

When he gets back we have the Tuna empanada I bought in the supermarket with a pile of salad. It’s the first time it feels like a ‘summer lunch’ sheltered from the wind the sun is glorious. A brief post-lunch walk and then it’s time to head down. 

No less impressive than the road up and just as precipitous. It feels greener still and many of the hillside are planted with rows of pine trees that from a distance look like a covering of corduroy. 



We stop after crossing the dam just short of Grandas de Salime, the evening sun is making the redundant building look great and Graham gets his camera out for a bit. 


We have about an hour and a half driving to hit the coast now and light is starting to fall so we decide to look for an overnight this side of the next mountain stretch. We check out the Aire in the town centre which feels a little concrete heavy after last night. We then drive on through the village and have to back up to make way for the blades of a wind turbine travelling on tiny roads (glad we didn’t see this on the mountain roads!) 



 We then look at a picnic area with just out of town but it’s by a fire station as well as a road so doesn’t feel very chilled. We decide it’s worth the extra ten mins to drive on to Pesoz and look at a park up there. This time it’s much better , just off a minor road and by a picnic area but tucked between an orchard and some spring blossoming trees. If that’s not enough I can hear my first cuckoo of the year! This will do nicely and we’ll get back to mountain driving tomorrow.



Cumulative Mileage: 708.7 

Overnight: Recreation area, Pesoz, (P4N 33735), free

Spending: Groceries, €52.98 (eek!)


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Day 41 - Riberduero to Embalse de La Cuerda del Pozo

Image
 Waking to sunshine and cuckoos, definitely spring now. Really hard to leave with the sun shining so we take our time doing all the necessary tasks when you are taking advantage of staying at a campsite.  A little later than we should leave we hot the road but only for a couple of miles to the limestone castle in the adjacent village of Penafiel. On paper this is a walkable distance but being at the top of a high hill the drive is very welcome.  The castle is unlike any other we’ve seen. It sits along a narrow ridge and to do this had to be built long and narrow. It’s almost ship like with one tower in the centre like a giant funnel. It’s also unlike any other in that the only way to visit it is on a Spanish speaking guided tour and on a ticket that includes seeing the ‘wine museum’ that is housed within the castle walls (€6.60). We tack onto a tour but are unable to keep up with the Spanish, so wander at the tail end of the group enjoying the sunshine and trying to work ...
Read more

Spain Day 5 - San Sebastián to Pamplona

Image
Bright sunshine to wake to at last! Off to Pamplona. Mostly motorway but we moved to the smaller road for the last 20 mins or so. Blue skies and snow capped mountains visible as we climbed. Stunning roadside mirador opportunity where we also got our first view of circling vultures and saw trees filled with nests of processionary moth caterpillars high in the pines.  Finally got a chance to make a brief visit to a bigger supermarket and fill up the fridge and the fuel tank just before we reached the city. The aire here is very new, on the outskirts of town next to the fire station, but only a short walk away from the centre (with a glass lift to save the climb). Google wasn’t happy with the address but got us near enough to follow the signs. It’s the first time that we’ve seen lots of English vans, mostly returning from winters on the ‘costas’. It’s nice to chat about their recommendations and experiences. The aire seems to be somewhere that young people hang around and smoke weed w...
Read more

Ready to go!

Image
Seems a long time since we were heading back from Scotland and talking about avoiding some of the British winter and taking the van to Spain, but nine months later we are about to hit the road.  The last couple of weeks have been filled with packing and re-packing to make the most compact version of everything. With a vague idea that we might keep going for six weeks and temperatures that could easily stretch from single figures to 30+ deciding what is needed is a challenge! Ten years on I’m still managing to find tiny mods that add space (like the magnetic knife rack holding little metal boxes) …and adding more fairy lights. The long ferry journey will be a new experience. Graham lacks 'sea legs' so it remains to be seem how crossing the Bay of Biscay will go. Particularly as they’ve brought the sailing forward tonight due to impending high winds! There’s also the added complication of having to have some things in a bag to take to the cabin …this destroys my van organisation...
Read more