travel

Riding to the Picos again

Thursday 1st September

Today I rode up to the beginning of the Picos up to Riano. The area is stunningly beautiful. There’s a large dam and reservoir that still seemed to be holding a vast amount of water despite obvious signs of its level having gone down.

More low water lever - though lots left in Spain — Water level in the Spanish drought

This is my third visit to the roads of the Picos and it never disappoints. Each time I take different roads the Garmin sending me down a long but entertaining dead end track ending in a gravel trail prohibited to motor vehicles. Another rider maybe would have tried it out to see if it goes where I wanted to end up.

The bike has been great and I have been growing in confidence with it despite noticing I’ve lost a large nut on the bash plate (I needed to tighten the others) and wondering whether the wheel bearing at the front was leaking. I cleaned off the grease and dirt and I don’t think it is. Zooming through lovely twisties mostly 4th and 5th gears was such fun.

Back here at the campsite things are emptying out and quietening. The pool isn’t open now it’s September and also the bar seems closed. The ‘Chico’ wasn’t there this morning to pay for another night and the grumpy man with the loud voice seemed to be telling me that he will be back tomorrow. There are only two other tents one housing a mysterious young guy who seems rarely around and another with a car of a couple with bicycles with German number plate I think who arrived today to replace the British couple who left today. Also my neighbour a solitary older man who did not respond to my greeting had completely and noiselessly vanished, tent, cycle and all be the time I woke up, scratched my head and looked around. It’s quite nice being at the end of the season. A little forlorn though. It is super quiet. It’s a juggling act with time and the weather. I really want to avoid camping in the rain. It makes everything awkward but I am restless here. There is not much to do up at Laredo I know apart from walk on the beautiful beach. I keep checking the weather to see if it is still raining there. Even if I leave earlyish on Saturday I could spend the afternoon and evening on the coast.

Solution: I will spend the day tomorrow looking round Leon. Apart from the cathedral there is a gallery of contemporary art and I could head there first.

Watching a large camper van arrive made the phrase ‘Carry your home with you’ come to mind. Even with the limited space on a moto that’s the idea isn’t it – if you are camping? Maybe not so much if you are using hotels. But I like that idea. I will see if I can use it as an organising principal in future. My early aim of buying and adapting a light weight travel bike with off-road capability has been helpful to recall at times when I have been unsure about what I am doing. So some statement like that is good to have.

I think I’ve said it before but the evenings are the best time here. There is still sunshine but it is a perfect temperature. The sun is low through the trees. If I ever come back to Spain, maybe on the way to (attempt again to) ride the ACT again, I will stay here.

Nice dinner for once — My last meal at the campsite

At Camping Ciudad de Leon

Tuesday 30th August

I’m now 150 or so miles east and in land from where I was this morning at Camping Rio Ulla in Galicia. H mentioned to me what the temperature was in London today – the same as where I was. I also checked the weather to see that rain was due here tomorrow and in fact all around the coast getting gradually more persistent through the day. Galicia is like Ireland I think, beautifully green, but green because it rains a lot. So, time to chase the good weather again. After looking at a spa hotel in Lugo for £100 a night I looked further east and found a shady campsite with a pool just on the edge of Leon. Good reviews, especially the shade. It was quite a ride and I turned off the motorway avoidance on the gps to get there more quickly. It was a hot and tiring ride in parts reaching up to 30 at times though never higher, thankfully. The diversions where the motorway was closed – or rather had not opened yet – were the most interesting bits and led me down roads full of walkers walking against my direction to St Iago de Compstella. I finally arrived here at 4 having left at shortly after 10. Really?! Did I ride for six hours?

This place, Camping Ciudad de Leon, is so different to the last busy noisy family site. There are no families here. In fact the nearest campers to me are lone men, one travelling by bicycle. There’s a pool but you have to have a lifeguard on duty and buy a hat. I rode down from here to a vast Carrefore supermarket for supper. All was good apart from a lack of ice (I tried a bag of frozen spinach instead). It’s warm here but not horribly hot. I’m fact I noticed how balmy it was just walking back down to my tent with the cicada singing at half past nine in the evening. The evenings were superb at this place. I will have to work out how to deal with the weather. The crucial day Saturday the day before I leave looks like rain all day by the coast. And I will have to see if there is any good riding around here.

Hotel Miera looks ok and cheap is in a town that’s about 23 mins from Santander. Or I think this is a better plan:

Stay here Weds and Thursday. On Thursday go toward Picos and a town called Riaño and back.

Friday head up to Laredo Rogation campsite. It’s just to the east of Santander and I’ve stayed there before when I had to catch an early ferry. Some light rain expected on Friday mid afternoon. Saturday seems mostly dry. The weather forecasts seem to change, usually for the better.

Last night I slept ok but was right under a light which stayed on all night. So I picked up my tent and all my belongings and moved a couple of pitches up the slope away from the light. Let’s see what difference that makes.

I must learn to relax. I’ve decided today will be a chilled day with just a ride down to the supermarket at lunchtime hoping they will have ice back in stock. I really have nothing to do. Aesthetically this place is not fantastic and has what I presume is a municipal feel to it. But the trees make it a nice setting so it seems to stay cool when the sun shines which it is just starting to do now at. 11.15. There are many very tame robins and a coupe of wild and scrawny cats with big ears. An English neighbour here tells me that there are Bee Eaters here who have a distinctive song. I didn’t see them.

Camping Ciudad de Leon — Before I moved up the hill

My one person city at Camping Ciudad de Leon — My one-man city

My tame robin friend at Camping Ciudad de Leon — My new friend

Cooking in my one person city outside Leon, Spain

Later on Wednesday. I caught up on my hotel reviews then got the news that our planning appeal was rejected. Shopping was successful including ice. I swam in the pool feeling out of practice. Then had dinner of smoked salmon heated up with some veg. It was disappointing though a local cat took an interest. Latest bike shop desires a new helmet to replace this falling apart and a dongle that enriches low end fuel mix. And to replace the lost bolt. Clutch seems ok. All in brief.

From Portugal up the coast to Galicia

Monday 29th August

I’m up and dressed waiting for the sounds of breakfast being prepared so I can eat and start off and leave this oasis back into the real world of camping and cooking. Yesterday, searching on Google, I found what looks to be a good campsite about 3 or 4 hours north from here on the Galician coast called Rio Ulla – because it is sited next to that river. The temperature there is forecast for mid 20s so no heat the struggle with. And reviews are good. I’ve noticed that for probably most campsites reviews are very mixed. Unwelcoming owners and neglected facilities are common themes, and often written about so strongly that they definitely put me off. Let’s see if this one works out. And I mustn’t lose track of what day it is. When I got out my itinerary the other day I was surprised to see that my boat for home leaves on Sunday and not Monday as I had for some reason in head.

Later. I’m now at Rio Ulla. I rode for over four hours without a break to get here. I made a point of choosing not to ride on any motorways so definitely made the longer journey here, though much more interesting to ride through towns and see people sitting or walking around. Typically for me, I didn’t stop for lunch in case I missed that last camping space though as I can see there are at least two spaces next to me so I could have been more relaxed about the journey. Now that I’ve told the gps to avoid motorways it really does avoid them and took me through towns and around amazingly twisty and up and down country roads. There was some beautiful riding on tarmac in some places looking like it had just been laid. A very different pleasure and concept to dirt roads. But it is getting dark here quickly so I will write more later.

This campsite is in a beautiful location and has a swimming pool which I visited to try my developing front crawl.

At Camping Rio Ulla, Galicia Swimming Pool — River Ulla

Spain is very family orientated and the campsite is packed with families and children, so you have to be happy to have a constant level of noise very close to you.

At Camping Rio Ulla, Galicia — I took this picture by accident

Now is a good moment to add some thoughts about the soft luggage that I am using for the first time, the Mosko Moto Reckless 80 setup. It involves heavy duty carriers for panniers and a roll top bag that sits on top of a rack. This set up cost me around €700. On the top it has two large flaps and straps and buckles that fold over and hold down a 22 litre tailbag and other bags that you can squeeze in and tighten down – like shopping. Without a system of pannier racks, the design trick is to keep the side bags from rubbing up against a hot exhaust and melting. The set up just about manages that though I checked a few times just in case. It features two tube like waterproof rolltop bags that slide into the side pockets and can then be strapped down. There are two smaller 4 litre similar bags, same shape but on a smaller scale that fit onto the back of each pouch. Coming from metal panniers and quite square shaped inners, the first thing to notice with this soft system is that the quite narrow cylindrical shape of the side bags means that a lot of the time you have to empty everything out to get to some item that has slipped to the bottom. They have transparent panels which are helpful to show you what’s inside but obviously don’t help with access. Secondly, when even just reasonably full these bags are difficult to push into the holster type structures that hold them. You have to do a lot of pushing and pulling or emptying a few things out first. You can see from the picture above that I resorted to leaving them on the bike to avoid having to do this. Because I was lucky enough to completely avoid any rain on this trip (this must be a first – it was a drought after all), I can’t say how waterproof the system is. I don’t doubt that it is. In future I will buy another tailbag, smaller than 22l to also stash under the top to use to put in shopping or the odd item that didn’t fit in the 22l bag that I used for camping equipment – tent, footprint, sleeping bag, Thermarest, inflatable pillow by Aluft and a Sea to Summit silk sleeping bag liner. My new Helinox camping chair had to be stashed outside this bag. It was a life-saver by the way, though one of the campsites had an old table and chair so I didn’t always use it.

I’m by the Portugal coast in the cool

Sunday 28th August

I’m revelling in the benefit of the cool weather by the coast. I’m sitting on a bench by a beach in Avila which is some kilometres north of Porto and south of the river that forms the border between Portugal and Spain. I’m still staying at the answer to every hope that is Casa Do Bosque. This morning I was served a perfectly presented continental breakfast. Not too much of anything but what there was was fresh and freshly made, the freshly squeezed orange juice, the bread and coffee. And of course enough bread and sliced cheese to make into a delicious sandwich that I’ve just eaten here by the sea. Followed by some plums I bought a couple of days ago. The breeze here now is so cool and cooling. And gone is the fight against the heat. Everything is easier from packing my bags to making decisions. I’ve been surprised how my small additions of a helmet lock and a light weight disk lock really do make parking up and walking around so much easier. I walked up and down a familiar Portuguese type sea front promenade then got on the bike to take me five minutes south to a little sandy beach with a great view. In fact I’ve been here sitting in the same spot for an hour.

Next stop Barcelos which I’ve been told is a town worth visiting and I’ve plotted a supermarket there to stock up for the next couple of days on the road. My decision for tomorrow is whether to try to get to a nice site Camping San Francisco in one day or split into two. Today is Sunday so I have one week left to make the most of. I have sent a message for advice from my Galician next door neighbour in London.

Later: The food at my hotel I have to say is sublime. Though I preferred my first meal to the second which was fish.

A major change of plan

Saturday 27th August

I’m writing after my plan changed rather drastically. I need to remember where to start. From Braganca I intrepidly started the ACT route south. Immediately I took one of the many possible wrong turns and ended up in a farm drive with the inevitable barking dogs and then the farmer. But the dogs were friendly and the farmer helpfully pointed to where I had gone wrong and that I had something dangling from my luggage. So I turned round and headed back the way he indicated. The route was mostly gravel with some stone parts. The easy bits were ok but every now and then would be something steep up or down or a sharp turn.

Near the start of ACT Portugal — First tunnel under the main road

Looking back I wonder what was so intimidating about it but at the first point that it crossed a small road I decided to stick to the road which was more fun as I could keep to wiggly roads by putting a town name up ahead into my gps. The weather was ideal high twenties and sunny though getting hotter. I think I managed about 45 minutes of the ACT but I was in 1st and 2nd gear all the time and had to turn the bike around 3 or 4 times when I realised I had taken the wrong track. The first day would have been 120 miles of that. Somehow it didn’t work. Also, somewhere along the route it got hot. So my plan was to head for the next hotel I had booked and restart from there. Some days, from the GPX track look as though they stick more to roads and the small roads are pretty entertaining.

My stops during the day may have been low key but they worked well, first at Mogadouro where I ate something sitting on a bench in the shade of a dead end street and planned from my maps and the GPS a twisty scenic route indirectly to Torre de Moncorvo where hotel number two is.

Mogadouro in the shade — eating in a dead end street

So far so good. It was a good plan. The route I took was amazing. Toward the end of the ride it was so hot that on spotting an unusual coincidence of a tree giving shade by the road and somewhere to stop just off the road I swerved over to come to an abrupt halt to drink and pour water over my head. But the riding and the roads were amazing. Until it got hot and the cooling breeze turned into a hot blast.

Entering the town, Torre de Moncorvo, required a steep and ever steeper ascent of a cobbled street up to a pleasant cobbled square where old men sat around watching the world go by including oddities like me. I get the feeling that Portuguese, at least in this not very visited part of the country, are really uncertain about travellers and always look quizzically. It took quite some walking to find where the hotel was hiding. But it was now hot – mid thirties. The hotel was and still is a historic building very dark with amazing but rather wasted on me antique furniture and lights. The receptionist spoke great English with humorous tone. Nice.

My room in Casa Da Avo in Torre de Moncorvo

I toured the hot streets on foot looking for a supermarket for ideally a beer from a fridge but in the end settled for orange juice not chilled and crisps both to have with my vodka which I did unwisely before heading out to O Lager restaurant. It was efficient like a large canteen but nicely cooked produce and lovely local white wine that I drank too much of.

Deadly wine in O Lagar Portugal — I only had half a bottle – honestly

Nice but deadly fish at O Lagar — The potatoes were overcooked but the fish was delicious

It was soft and drinkable but 13 percent. I really enjoyed myself though walked unsteadily back to my hotel. But lying down to sleep sent the room into a spin that just would not go away and a couple of hours later the fish I ate were released into the sewerage system. Not a good night (at some points I thought ‘if now is when I die I don’t care’) and when morning came I decided I should stay another night because I did not feel well enough to ride but alas receptionist on duty rather less fluent than her colleague told me there were no vacancies though her colleague yesterday had said there would be. But I am glad I did not stay there, very glad. I found the town and the hotel claustrophobic. That’s when I changed my plan after a clear bit of advice from H. back at home. On the phone I abandoned the continued ride into the hotter south and decided to go west to the coast that according to my app was 10 degrees cooler – ah luxury.

Temperature in Portugal — Don’t take my word for it, look at this

I picked a hotel in a hurry on booking.com. A choice between £43 with crummy reviews and £82 with glowing. I chose the latter, about 10k from the coast and pretty much due west from where I was. I’m so glad I did because here I am in a place that’s such the opposite to the old fashioned places from earlier. It is white modern and airy run by a welcoming French family. (actually I don’t think they were French but I felt like I had died and gone to heaven). Everything is so much better like the Wi-Fi router actually in your room and working an amazing shower room. And cooler, so much. I missed the entrance on a steep bit of road of course but managed to manoeuvre my bike around to make it up a rather hidden drive. I’ve ordered dinner and meat not fish, which is what people ask you, for a change.

Internally I battle with anxiety and catastrophic thoughts as I ride. If I am just enjoying the ride I am lucky. It can be anything: often just the practicalities of what I need to do feel overwhelming but they unfailingly work out fine. Earlier in the ride it was whether the clutch cable would go slack again. A blast of heat sends a wave of panic. Today I got in the wrong lane at a motorway toll and didn’t take a ticket but at the exit, many miles later, I decided also to go through the free lane, so as I have told myself a million times, things are nearly always completely fine. These trips always bring this out. At home routine keeps it mostly at bay.

Thursday at the hotel Estalagem in Braganca Portugal Thursday 25th August

Time to catch up.

In Braganca hotel

The ride through the tunnels from Santander heading south was enjoyable and I remembered them from previous trips. The temperature varied. At some moments I thought about stopping to get something warmer on then later to take something off. But the trend was that it was getting hotter. I stopped once at a Repsol station not to get fuel but some water and peanuts which I started eating standing next to the bike, a pattern for my travels, then headed off. But it was getting hotter and eventually the wind changed from being a cooling breeze to feeling like sitting in front of an open oven door. I don’t know why but I kept on riding when I should have stopped to drink water.

I remember I stopped in a stone walled car park in Burgos a beautiful university city on the Camino it seemed by the pilgrims that I saw walking by the road. But I didn’t stop for any length of time. It was too hot. I headed for campsite one, Camping Riberduero Spain, Castilla Y Leon, and got there just after two. I had to phone the manager when I arrived. She said go ahead and pitch and gave directions to vacant spaces. I was impressed by the professionalism.

Camping Riberduero Spain, Castilla Y Leon

It was hot and there were flies and I was exhausted by the heat. A shower helped but it wasn’t till about 6 when I climbed back into my bike gear to visit the local supermarket and came away with Dinner and a beer all wrapped up with a bag of ice that I started to relax. So I determined to do the next day differently. I slept ok though realised my tent was next to a light so it was never dark. Dogs barked in the night reminding me of other nights in Spain. Breakfast and it always takes so long to pack up and leave.

A better experience. I knew those first couple of cooler hours would be the ones to enjoy. A spell on a motorway then a stop for orange juice then N122 all the way over the big bridge on the Douro marking the border between Spain and Portugal noting the temperature was over 30.

I arrived in the town too early to check in so parked up and had something to eat from my supplies.

At Braganca Portugal — Parked and feeling optimistic

There is a loud music venue and a happy dog below as I write this at 9.45pm at night at Hotel Estalagem.

Once at Braganca and rather hot with time to kill I found the start of the ACT here – which is why I came – and tried the first bit of gravel road. The bike was hot it’s fans racing. I was hot and flustered, in turn willing to try it and definitely not willing. But I will try it and be prepared to exit onto the roads around here if needed. The next hotel further south has check in from 3pm so there will be a couple of hot hours tomorrow. I must keep my personal cool and let that ever present anxiety fall away. That’s another story.

Dinner here. High point a huge g and t in a huge ice-filled glass with condensation on the outside. Low point waiters asking continually if all was good.

G&T so welcome at Hotel Estalagem — Look how big this drink is! It needed both hands to lift it.

The room here is old fashioned with large old fashioned furniture and bathroom and I had to move a very large wardrobe into the middle of the room to get to the electric sockets to get everything charged up. So un-21st century.

Charging behind the wardrobe at Hotel Estalagem — Behind the huge wardrobe in the middle of the room.

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