It didn’t stop raining all night last night! But we were dry in the tent and I used earplugs to get a good night’s sleep in spite of the hammering rain. When we started packing up inside the tent at 7am, the rain stopped, there were hints of blue sky and we were able to break camp and set off in lovely conditions.

As we rode out of the campsite through the village, the mist was rising off the cloud-shrouded hills around the valley, and the colours were wonderful after the rain. Fields of poppies all bright red, bobbing their heads under the weight of the water on them. We headed back to the road, the N-VI that has been serving us well for the last few days. Today, as yesterday, we were taking the N-VI alongside the new (and huge) A6 motorway. Neither road was very busy, but thankfully most of the traffic was on the A6 and we had the N-VI mostly to ourselves again.

The sun and the clouds were with us all along the N-VI as we headed gradually uphill, north up the valley. When we were on the same route as the famous Camino de Santiago, we saw loads of hikers and greeted each other with the customary ‘Hola! Buen Camino!’. When we stopped for first lunch at a picnic spot in a little town, we chatted to a Dutch lady who’d cycled from home to do the Camino de Santiago.

Then we continued uphill, steeper now, criss-crossing the A6, under or over as the weather was getting steadily worse. A cold wind was blowing and the rain came and went. The phrase of the day was ‘Oh look, it’s raining over there!’, then it’d rain over here for a bit, too.

We crossed the county boundary into Galicia [pronounced Galithia], a country renowned for its lush green hills, good farming and lots of rain!  So of course it was raining as we entered the county.

When we finally made it to point at which we were going to leave the N-VI, we were already tired and it was raining quite hard. We stopped for a chilly second lunch then carried on up and up and up.

We met a few other cyclists on the way, all with quite a bit less luggage than us but we were all having just as tough a time going up the mountain.  A friendly Czech guy took a picture of us at a viewpoint.

When we finally made it to the top of the pass, we thought we were going to get to go down for a while, but ended up going straight back up again!

It seems like we had been going for hours uphill in the rain this afternoon, but we’ve hardly gone any distance since we left the N-VI! When we’d one 50km for the day, we came to the top of a hill in the rain and saw a hostel, so decided to call it a day. We finished the day 850 meters higher than we started but the total climbing was more as we went down quite a bit too!

The hostel is far from the best accommodation – it boasts the world’s worst showers! But alas, we are clean and warm and dry and full of delicious home-made lamb stew and sweet tea from the bar! There are a few locals chatting noisily in Spanish and one Camino walker kindly talking to us in English.  He did the same distance as us today but without wheels!

– Anna

We thought we were in for rain all day today and we were knackered so we set the alarm for 9 to make the most of our luxury two star hotel. I was worried we might have to check out by 10, but Anna pointed out that was unlikely since nothing opens here till 11. Fair point, and so it proved.

When we woke up sure enough it was still raining! We had breakfast (muesli with powdered milk) in bed then reluctantly started getting ready to head out. We loaded the bikes in the underground car park and headed up the ramp to find that against all expectations the rain had stopped and the air had that beautiful clear crispness that follows a good downpour. So we set off in good spirits and superfluous full waterproofs, which had to be removed fairly rapidly.

It was a pretty, cloudy day, and the clouds made fascinating shapes against the distant mountains.

It was mid-morning on Saturday and the traffic on the motorway was a nightmare. Don’t know how we got through it.

We only had 30 km to do today to reach our campsite at Villamartin de la Abadia. There were a couple of climbs but the majority was flat or downhill and we covered the distance quickly, stopping for a quick lunch of cheese, avocado and chorizo rolls on the outskirts of Ponferrada just after crossing a beautiful river valley with a great view of the viaduct further upstream.

We got into the campsite about 12 and the weather was still good, so once we’d had a shower and hand-washed our cycle stuff we hung out in a little plaza and had some more food. Anna made the most of the afternoon sun with a quick siesta. After that we played frisbee for a bit – totally worth carrying a frisbee!

Siesta!

Once the shop opened at 5 we went and got some food for tomorrow and came back to cook dinner. The promised rain finally set in at this point, so we have just spent the last four hours stranded under the shelter at the campsite cooking, eating and chatting.

As we were packing up a lovely German couple came over with a bottle of wine and declared that they thought we would like to share it with them. Rude not to, so we had our first wine of the trip chatting about our respective travels. They have travelled a lot in Spain, and came from Santiago today – it’ll take me and Anna about 5 days to do that in the other direction! They have also been to the UK – they think the Highlands are the most beautiful area, and they are very taken with the ‘park and ride’ concept. Probably wouldn’t be on my adverts for visiting the UK, but maybe it should be! There are no photos as we were separated from our cameras by lots of falling water.

We finally made a break for the tents and I am writing this up with the rain hammering down on the fabric and knowing I’m going to have to go outside in a minute and put the cover on my leather saddle. D’oh!

– Dave

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