Our campsite last night was lovely and flat, but it did have its issues.  It was cloudy when we went to bed, so it was unusually warm and we felt sticky and grotty in our sleeping bags.  We could hear the dogs barking angrily in the town about a kilometre away and we felt a little uneasy about the whole thing.

In the night, Dave woke to the sound of gentle footsteps on the old crunchy leaves around our tent, accompanied by the odd grunt and snort of wild boar! Thankfully he didn’t wake me, and just nervously awaited their departure in silence.  I guess they love the sweet chestnuts that were strewn all over our campsite!  A little later in the night, we both woke up to hear them fighting and squealing in the next field and stayed awake for a while feeling nervous, hoping we weren’t going to get trampled or mauled.  The boars were in my dreams, then we woke again a little later to hear more piercing squeals from another direction.  We both kind of knew that they wouldn’t bother us, but it was disconcerting.

For the first time on the trip I was glad to hear the alarm go off at 6:30!  I think we were both still pretty tired but happy to get up.  We packed away pretty smoothly under a clouded sky and it was unusually dark when we set off at 7:30am.

The blanket of clouds was rippled in places, making it seem as though we were looking up at the surface of the ocean from below.  As we rode west, the sky behind us was getting lighter as some sunlight managed to make it through the clouds.

We had more ups and downs to do, getting alternately hot and cold.  The clouds that had kept us warm in the night were now preventing sun-warming and by the time we’d had whispered breakfast on a bench in a silent sleeping village, we were quite chilly.

Then we got back on the road and the rain started.  A gentle patter that lasted all day!  We encased ourselves in our rain gear and sweated up hills, then shivered down them.  We stopped in a small town for a snack before going on to meet the main road in the valley.

It was pretty grim riding today and after one particularly cutting shout of ‘This is shit!’ from me on the way up a steep hill, Dave asked whether I’d rather be back at my safe cosy desk in London, warm and clean and dry… … Nah.

When we finally made it to the main road N-VI after 30km, we were knackered and so desperate for a shower that we stopped in the service station and paid 3 Euros each for the privilege of standing under a jet of water in a little shower cubicle!  Not ideal but we did feel better afterwards.

Back on the road, back in the rain.  But look – it’s downhill!!  Finally!  I think we were too tired and the weather was too gross for us to really enjoy it, but it was a relief not to have to work the legs for 20km.  We sped down at 40kmh without pedalling, had the whole road to ourselves, the heather-clad hills rolling by, the rain spiking our faces, our fingers chilled to the bone.  Through a few tunnels, around a few switchbacks then into the valley and the town of Bembibre.

We rode into the centre of town, grey in the drizzle but bustling with people, unlike the sleepy villages of the last week.  At a loss as to where to go to find a hostel, we stood in the rain in town and discussed the matter.  Then a man strode up to us and said (in English! nobody here speaks English!), “Hello guys, do you need some help?”.  That would be great, thank you.  We had a little chat and he pointed us in the direction of a cheap hotel and we checked in, miles over budget for the day at 40 Euros.  But I think we earned our first solid accommodation of the trip!

The rain drizzled on outside all afternoon as we went about our chores of shopping, eating, laundry, sorting kit, internet and napping.  We are still getting used to the strange opening hours, usually 10-12 in the morning then 5-8 at night!  And our terrible Spanish is inhibiting efficiency of chores.  There don’t appear to be any self-service laundry places here, so we spent about 20 minutes in the laundrette, trying to establish whether we could get our clothes washed.  We never found out what the issue was, but got our stuff back clean and dry two hours after leaving it there, so I guess it worked out ok.

We feel slightly better for having a rest this afternoon, although the stairs to our 1st floor room keep reminding us how tired our legs are.  We’ve been doing some route planning and should be in Santiago de Compostela in under a week.  After that we’re heading to the first rewilding project of the trip in Portugal called the Faia Brava Reserve.  Looking forward to the journeys and the destinations!

– Anna

We woke up just as the sun broke over the hills, and managed to pack away and have breakfast in about an hour and get on the road.

We chatted away as we rode, commenting on how much we enjoy the morning part of the ride, once the initial unpleasantness of getting out of the sleeping bags is dealt with. There were lots more storks (all those cranes we saw before turn out to be white storks (Ciconia ciconia)) hanging around in the fields, looking up at us and sometimes flapping away on their huge wings as we sped past.

There were some big hills on the morning ride today, including this 2 km beast. It did have an equally steep downhill on the other side though, which was fun!

Anna pointed out some strangely shaped clouds in the distance, which turned out to be formed from two massive cooling towers from the power station at La Robla. The cement factory there probably accounted for all the quarrying we saw. We hoped to find some shops and wifi in La Robla, but when we got into town it was still only 10 am, and things didn’t start opening till 12, so we pushed on. We did eventually manage to access the outside word by sitting on the steps of a hotel in a town called La Magdalena, and getting on their unsecured network. Funny how you care less about that kind of thing when you’re trying to travel on €30 a day!

We pulled into a beautiful village called Riallo at about 2 pm and sat down outside a popular looking bar for a drink and to continue our internet tasks. We were trying to plan our route for the next few days. At this point we got chatting to a guy who’d retired to the area from Barcelona. He didn’t have much English, and our Spanish is still awful, but he started recommending a different route to us, since our one apparently contained too much uphill. After about half an hour of negotiations with him, two of his friends and a younger guy with a smartphone who showed us the suggested route (which was supposed to be 62 km of downhill to our next big town of Bembibra) we said “Gracias y Adios” and they left. Anna was keen to push on, but I had had enough for the day and said I didn’t think I could do it. Anna said “of course you can” which of course I took as a challenge, so off we went. We forgot to go to the shop, which we had meant to do before setting off.

The first part of the ride was indeed downhill, along a beautiful quiet road which crossed and re-crossed a wide, shallow river banked with mixed woodland in springtime bloom. Things started to go wrong when we took the wrong turning at a roundabout and did about a kilometre in the wrong direction. This might not seem like much but when you’re tired and hungry it’s a big deal. So I started sulking and we did the next 2 km in an awkward silence. We got to the bottom of a steep uphill and stopped to have a good argument. I said that Anna hadn’t listened to me when I said I wanted to stop at Riallo, and she said that she’d offered to stop a few km back if I wanted to. I said I wasn’t going to take responsibility for calling a halt when it was in the context of her wanting to go on and me spoiling the fun. Anna said we could go back and camp at a spot we’d passed which looked flat and near the river, but I refused to go back, said I felt fine and started off up the hill. It turned out to be a very big hill. By the time we had got to the top we had managed to argue to the point of exhaustion, so we both apologized and agreed to get on with it and find somewhere good to camp, since the promised 62 km of downhill to Bembibre was clearly lacking.

There was a great view from the top of the hill across a plateau of heather and trees at the side of the road which dipped into a wide valley and then layers of blue hills in the far distance.

We went up and down a couple of long hills before I spotted a likely looking campsite by the side of the road just before another massive hill. There was running water and a flat (ish) grassy area and it was partially hidden from the road by a bank and some small trees. I checked it out and decided (probably due to desperation) that it was suitable. We got all the gear and the bikes down the bank and I started to cook while Anna looked for somewhere to put the tent. She pointed out that my description of the grass as “a bit hummocky” was a massive understatement, and the ground was in fact exclusively made of hummocks. I had to acknowledge this, as well as the high density of biting insects, and the dubious presence of animal dung near the stream. We decided over dinner that it was in fact an awful campsite. Once this was agreed we made the painful decision to press on. We had a quick wash from the water bottles (not recommended) and cleaned our teeth hoping that we would then be ready for bed as soon as we found a vaguely suitable site.

We lugged the gear back up the bank and onto the road and pedalled oh so slowly up the hill to the pleasantly named village of San Feliz de la Lavenderas. They had a beautiful old church with a stork nest (complete with baby stork on the bell tower), but on the downside, no hostel or campground.

We were following Google Maps down a track that was supposed to lead us back to the main road when we met an old guy who told us that it didn’t actually go back to the road at all, and shepherded us back towards the village. Two other guys then set us on the right path out of town. We were so tired by this point, and almost as soon as we left the village Anna spotted a flat bit of land by the side of the road that supported some big sweet chestnut trees, but no signs of cultivation. It was a great campsite apart from the spiny chestnut shells, which had to be cleared away in case they punctured the groundsheet. They were certainly capable of doing this; they went straight through our gloves as we used our hands to pick out the last few after an initial foot-sweep. We got the tent set up as it got dark and crawled inside, still sweaty and gross, to try and get some sleep.

So, my lessons learned from the day: 1. don’t blindly accept advice relating to gradients from non-cyclists; and 2. if you need to stop, put your foot down!

– Dave

I didn’t sleep well last night, I kept having dreams about being simultaneously fined by the police and flooded out by the river. Neither of those things happened though and we were undisturbed yet again, Hurrah!

It was cold when we got up; there was frost on the ground except for a 2 m radius around our tent, obviously we are very warm people! We had tasty chocolate porridge with dried fruit and coconut flakes for breakfast, highly recommended! We were packed away and ready to go in 1.5 hours which is our best so far; we plan to get down to 1 hour once we become a well oiled camp breaking machine.

We set off towards Riano as the sun broke over the mountain top by our campsite, and as we headed down the road we were treated to multiple sunrises as the sun dipped in and out of view behind ridges. We were still following the river as it rushed along past farms and through lovely red-roofed villages. We saw (maybe) a crane in a field to the right, he stayed still while we stopped and watched him, but made his escape as soon as he saw the camera!

We came to a picnic area that was full of blossoming cherry trees. The trees in turn were full of bumbebees; their low drone filled our ears as we stripped off some layers and chilled out taking photos and enjoying the sunshine.

Just before Riano the river met a huge lake, and our pace slowed considerably as we stopped every 50 m to get that perfect view of the mountains reflected in the lake. Here is our best effort, of course it doesn’t do the real view justice!

We got to town and saw the sign for the campsite which was 500 m up a steep side road above the town. We decided to check it out and toiled up to the top. The owner said that the site was shut due to snow damage so he couldn’t let us stay because he had no insurance. He was very apologetic and phoned the youth hostel in town to see if they were open. They weren’t, and at this he changed his mind and said he would leave the gate open for us and if we didn’t find anywhere in town we could pitch our tent for free. What a hero!

He also gave us a recommendation for a good breakfast venue, so we headed down into town and took full advantage with a massive burger each. I also had my first coffee since getting to Spain and it was glorious!

We were looking for somewhere to shower and do laundry, but the tourist office was shut and the hotel we enquired at didn’t know of anywhere. So we found a quiet spot by the lake and have set up here for the afternoon. We had a refreshing wash in the freezing water and did our laundry by hand.

Anna went into town to get food, but everywhere is shut except the bakery so we are chilling out here in the sunshine until the shops OPEN at 5 pm! After that we will head to a bar to get wifi, then sneak back into the campsite. So all in all a very relaxing day at the beach!

– Dave

We were up early this morning full of excitement to start the ride. Silvia had to work so we said goodbye to her first thing before having some breakfast and packing up. Once we were ready to go we said goodbye to Carlos and headed off. We were so lucky to meet Silvia and Carlos, they are  so kind and intelligent and full of enthusiasm for life. I hope we get to meet lots more people like them on our trip. We hope to meet up with them again on Sunday for some climbing, but only if the weather’s good so who knows.

We set of North into some pretty heavy rain and had to go over two busy and STEEP road bridges. A great introduction to touring! The road out of town was pretty busy and the rain and spray kicking up off the road was not great. the tantalising views of the hills kept us going though and once we got out of town the traffic calmed down to a manageable level. The rain stopped just in time for our first break of the day after about 10 km. We found out from Silvia and Carlos that Spanish people have up to three lunches per day. This seems and admirable tradition, and we have decided to adopt it!

With the weather clearing we headed onwards; the road wound up and down over hills and valleys housing beautiful villages, impressive churches, lots of lovely woodland and  rolling acres of lush green pasture. I think we are getting the best of Northern Spain right now because there are wild flowers EVERYWHERE. We even saw a massive lily growing on the road verge. We also saw a huge bird of prey with a forked tail gliding over the road, we think it might have been a black kite. It’s stunning!

Some time after lunch number 2 (cheesy pasta) we were slogging up another hill when we stopped for some water. There were two ladies in a front garden discussing their flower beds. We said “Hola!” and the next thing we knew they were outside on the road offering us tea! Not going to lie, I really wanted a cup of tea at that moment, so we accepted and followed them up the drive. There were two gents pottering around in the garage, and at a word from the ladies they all jumped into action, a table was set up, chairs appeared and tea was brewed. Our hosts opted for martinis (we stuck to tea) and we had a 20 minute chat where we practised our very bad Spanish and they practised their pretty bad English. We managed to agree that the weather was bad and we may have brought it with us from England. We has to excuse ourselves as they started the second round of martinis, and they gave us a packet of biscuits to see us on our way. EVERYONE HERE IS SUPER NICE!

After a couple more kilometres we got to our intended third lunch stop of Santilla Del Mar. This is a beautiful medieval town set in yet another gorgeous valley. We treated ourselves to lunch in a restaurant and an English lesson from a friendly waitress before having a little wander round. We would have liked to stay longer but the road was calling!

Re-fuelled we set off to cover the remaining 15 km to our stopping point of Comillas. We were getting pretty tired by this point so we were relieved to find there seemed to be a lot of downhill! We got into Comillas at 5 and found the campsite, picture perfect and right by the beach. The only problem was that it was shut. Crap. The gardener told us there was another site 5 km down the road. We had a conciliatory apple pastry and set off again. Happily it was pretty straightforward and we are now in a lovely campsite with showers and wifi (pretty luxury), contemplating 60 km into the mountains tomorrow and thinking we should probably go to bed!

– Dave

Yesterday was our first full day in Spain! When we woke up, our hosts had already left for work and it was raining outside. The other guest Taka was awake too and he made us all pasta for breakfast before we all headed into town. Dave and I were spending the day in town then coming back to the house again in the evening, but Taka was laden and ready to go.

Waiting outside the grand Curreos (post office).

We went to the post office for Taka, then took him to the bus station so that he could go to Bilbao. Unfortunately he was told that he can’t take his bike on the bus, so he decided not to bother with Bilbao and head south straight out of Santander towards Morocco. From there, he was going to cross the Sahara to Senegal.   Yeah, rather him than me!!

After waving Taka off, we went for lunch then headed along the beach in the drizzle and looked at the views from under our raincoats.

A rainy start to the day.

We stopped at a castle on a rocky outcrop with lovely gardens.

Castle

Gardens

On our way back, the sun came out for a bit and we enjoyed the lovely coastal views and the picturesque parts of town.

Sunning ourselves outside the cathedral.

Then we were back with Silvia and Carlos and we made them a great British dinner of Shepherd’s Pie and we talked for ages about cycling and climbing in the Picos mountains that we will get to in a few day’s time. Very excited!

On Saturday we started our rewilding journey with a visit to the Knepp Wildland Project in West Sussex (England). We took some friends along and were guided around by Penny Green, the knowledgeable and enthusiastic Ranger.

The project was formerly a large dairy and arable farm. The current owner, Charlie, got to know Ted Green and Jill Butler (ancient tree gurus at the Woodland Trust) and bravely decided to risk everything by turning his back on 100 years of traditional farming by his family and embrace a new concept – low intervention farming using the animals themselves to manage the land.

Penny gave us a fascinating presentation on the history of the estate, and how the rewilding project came about. We then went out in a Pinzgauer (a six-wheel drive troop carrier), which apparently is the only thing that can reliably handle the Sussex clay in the winter!

Over 60 km of fencing was removed before the start of the project and we drove through the former fields, hopping out near an oak tree that occasionally (but not today sadly) contains a little owl. To compensate for the missing owl, Penny pointed out a rare bracket fungus (Phellinus robustus) growing high up in the crown of the tree. I guess one of the advantages of fungi as a subject is that they don’t move around too much!

Shortly after this we saw two red kites (Milvus milvus) circling overhead, a nice reminder that this species is making a good comeback in England after over a century of absence.

The changes that are happening on the estate were clear to see from the start. The fields that once supported a monoculture are developing a new flora. Rootling for bulbs and other sub-surface goodies by Tamworth pigs (specially selected for the purpose) overturns the soil and creates habitat for invertebrates and wildflowers. Low-intensity grazing by longhorn cattle, fallow and roe deer keeps areas of grass open, but the dog-rose, blackthorn and brambles are providing protection for young oak trees. The thorns are no match for the exmoor ponies however, who seem to enjoy the challenge! Sallow (Salix caprea and Salix cinerea) is becoming established, and is used by the longhorn cattle as lunch and rubbing posts.

We made our way to a tree platform that had been constructed in the spreading branches of a beautiful old oak tree that survived the intensive farming days. From the platform we got a good look across the emerging landscape, and a glimpse of a Tamworth pig – a big orangey-brown shape snuffling through the undergrowth.

The pattern that was emerging was clearer from the tree platform. Penny explained that once the oak trees become established and immune to the effects of browsing, they will form the basis of an open, wooded habitat. Careful stock management is intended to ensure the fields do not revert to plain but will not turn into dense woodland – browsing is expected to maintain meadow areas. No one is really sure though – the big experiment is to try to replace some of the missing ecosystem-shaping species, and then see what happens.

As it is unlikely that large predators will be introduced (it was calculated that the area is only big enough to support one and a half lynx), culling is used to manage herbivore populations. Licensed hunting of deer stags is also an important revenue source. All the meat is sold for consumption and the revenue is used to conduct necessary maintenance. The deer stalking is used to supplement the project’s finances; there is no intention to turn this into a deer stalking estate!

The hedges and field margins are becoming taller, deeper and denser, creating habitat for birds, small mammals and reptiles. Penny told us that beneficiaries from these changes include nightingales (Knepp now supports 2% of the UK’s wild breeding population), turtle doves and cuckoos. Turtle dove numbers in the UK decreased by 96% between 1970 and 2012 and were identified in 2010 as the bird species most likely to be extinct in the UK by 2020. At least four territories were identified at Knepp during 2014, up from an average of two in previous years. This is a drop in the ocean in terms of the UK-wide population crash, but it is very encouraging to see the species appearing to increase in number within the project area.

The stunning purple emperor butterfly (Apatura iris) is another big winner at Knepp. It was first noticed breeding at the project in 2009, and by 2013 was considered to host the second strongest population in the country. This species is traditionally associated with mature mixed woodland, but Knepp is changing the received wisdom on this. The males display over large oak trees, and the females lay their eggs on sallow. It seems that the suddenly increased availability of sallow is responsible for the spectacular population increase at Knepp, and that the Purple Emperor could become much more widespread in the southeast if the availability of food plants were increased. We didn’t see any on our trip as the adults emerge in early July, but I recommend going on a summer safari!

After another stint in the Pinzgauer we jumped out to investigate some sheets of corrugated iron that had been put down to provide winter shelter for reptiles. Under the first sheet we saw two grass snakes curled up together. They hung around and let us get a good look at them before Penny covered them back up.

After this we headed back to the dining / conference building for delicious lunch, including home-grown salad, pork pie and ham followed by chocolate brownies and coffee. Mmmmmm!

After lunch we went out again – into the northern area of the farm this time. We saw some long-horned cattle hanging out alongside red deer.

This was also our opportunity to check out the river. At the start of the project the existing canalised river was re-routed into a newly dug, meandering channel along the bottom of the valley, and then left to evolve on its own. Recently, in an attempt to replicate the work of beavers (which Knepp have yet to acquire), volunteers have placed trunks and branches in the river to reduce flow and allow siltation. The meanders and the woody debris placed in the channels will reduce the speed of the flow, allow local flooding, and help prevent uncontrolled flooding downstream.

After checking out the river it was time to head back to base. On the way we spotted a peregrine falcon (Falco peregrinus) gliding over a nearby wood. I’ll take the long camera lens next time!

We had a brilliant time at Knepp. Penny really knew her stuff, and it was great to learn that this type of work is going on in the UK. When Knepp was used for intensive agriculture, it was losing money despite government subsidies. Part of the revenue from the project today is still from subsidies (sustainability subsidies instead of production subsidies), as well as meat production, letting out the farm buildings to local businesses, and eco-tourism. The advantages of converting to rewilding are that there are now no pesticides applied to the land, local employment has actually increased, and the results for wildlife (and visitors) speak for themselves.

We would thoroughly recommend a visit to Knepp. We went right at the start of the season, and there was cool stuff to see. It would be amazing to go back in summer to see it in full bloom.

To organise a visit to Knepp or check out their blog…

http://www.kneppsafaris.co.uk/

http://kneppcastle.blogspot.co.uk/

If you want to look at survey data that has been gathered since the start of the project, check here…

http://www.knepp.co.uk/pages/conservation/wildlife_survey.asp