It was after 10am by the time we drove away from Cudillero and we didn’t drive very far to start with. We stopped on the outskirts of Avilés at a huge Carrefour supermarket and went a bit crazy. Rodney came away with a pair of swimming shorts and a couple of screwdrivers in the size that we need and of course didn’t previously possess. We also filled the trolley with masses of food and nibbles, I was concerned we would never fit it all in our cupboards and tiny fridge; I guess we’ll be eating very well for the next few days. The next stop was just down the road to fill up Eileen with some LPG in her gas tank and then we sped along the traffic free A8 as far as Lastres. We spent so much time in the supermercado, that it was already lunch time, so we picnicked at the top of a cliff with nice views over a rocky beach and then walked round in to the village
The village is crammed into a steep gully and spreads all the way down to the harbour. I don’t know how they envisage building their houses right on top of each other like they do. “Excuse me, can I borrow a bit of your roof to put my side wall on?” It reminded us of the Cinque Terra in Italy, but not quite as pretty and the place was not exactly lively, we must have spotted about ten people and four of them were tourists; oh and there was a cat strolling around too.
It was only another 10kms to the campsite at Arenal de Moris, which apparently means the Sands of Moris, not sure who he is, but there are a couple of very nice beaches just below the campsite, so maybe they belong to Mr Moris? Rodney was checked in as Rodwey, unusual, but it could suit him….? I may continue calling him Rodwey. It had rained on and off for most of the day, so we tucked Eileen’s nose under an olive tree, just to help us remember that we are in soggy cool Spain and not in soggy cool England. We’re so close to lovely beaches that it’s really annoying that we can’t appreciate them with our beach towels in a prone position.
It wasn’t even worth setting up the patio, so we stayed indoors. Rodney labelled up all of our photos and I finished sewing a large sardine, a very large sardine in fact. And then while Rodney drank beer and watched soccer in the campsite café, I danced along to Joe Cocker, whilst scraping the last couple of teaspoons of Nutella from the pot. I cooked medallon de babilla, it looked like a nice lean steak, but Google Translate tells me it is ‘stifle and veal’. Checking my dictionary, stifle means to suffocate, throttle or restrain; eeks! Gawd knows what it was, but it tasted darn good with sautéed potatoes and a selection of vegetables.
And after dinner we strolled 200 metres down to the beach and got wet in another shower of rain on the way back up.
All morning it drizzled and the clouds clung to the mountains, but there were lovely views all the way from the coast heading inland. We stopped at the Mirador del Fito and could see all the way back to Lastres and Carravia, in between the low hanging puffs of wet clouds. At Arriondas we missed a turning and drove in both directions through the town. At Cangas de Onis we did it again, wrong way through town, ring road back around and then spotted the turning just after the Roman bridge. We continued south and the road gradually narrowed in to an incredibly narrow, steep sided gorge. The 10km section called the Desfiladero los Beyos was dramatic in its rock formations and rather too difficult to get a photo that would capture the real essence of the canyon.
When we crossed the border from Asturias to Castilla Y León, the canyon opened up into a wider gorge with an increasingly winding road. The clouds became incredibly thick around us, we were right inside them, but as we passed the Ponte del Pontón, we popped out and the sky turned blue…… and white. We’ve seen very little wildlife on our trip around Spain and Portugal, not even any ‘roadkill’, so it was really nice to see a family of three deer beside the road. Sadly they made a very nervous and speedy dash into the undergrowth, so it really was only a glimpse. As we crossed the meadows near to Riaño, lots of storks were taking off and landing in the long grass, they looked almost comical, but fabulous when gliding around beside us.
The Embalse de Riaño is a huge reservoir and, as we crossed a bridge over one of its tributaries, the whole lake was spread out in front of us and, with the jagged peaks of mountains on the far side, it looked spectacular. After the narrowness and gloom within the canyon, it felt like something inside your chest had lifted. Even the yellow broom seemed to make the scenery glow and the view from beside the church was lovely.
In Riaño we ate a ‘meat no veggie’ lunch at the Restaurante El Mesón and then turned Eileen east and headed along the south side of the Picos de Europa. The road map showed the route as a very wiggly line and we weren’t sure what we were in for. It was yet another picturesque drive and the road really did twist and turn, even right back on itself many times, all within a beautiful wide green sloping valley. There were glimpses of jagged peaks, but the cloud was still covering most of them. Thankfully there was very little traffic on the roads all day, so Driver Rodney was able to crawl along and take in the fabulous views as much as me, well almost as much as me, the hairpin bends did take up a lot of ‘eyes on the road’ time.
We reached Potes late in the afternoon and checked in to Camping La Isla set by the river about 3kms out of town. The wi-fi is free, the bathrooms are very smart, but sadly the weather was far too cool to spend any time by the swimming pool. There were supposed to be views of the mountains, but we couldn’t see any.
A big spider crawling up my leg, when I was in the shower, was not a good way to start Thursday……..! However, the day did improve. The rain had stopped, but we still set off on the walk in to Potes fully prepared with fleecies on, raincoats in the rucksack and no sunglasses. About 500 metres from the campsite we turned around for some reason and realised there were massive mountains behind us, what a view!
We weaved our way around the village, some of it is very old and its setting at the junction of the Rio Deva and the Rio Quiviesa, gives it a certain charm. Often at the end of a road or on a bridge, you get an amazing view of the Picos de Europa with small patches of snow still clinging to them. A charming man advised us to eat in his family restaurant ‘La Cantabria’, as all the food is “locally produced and the restaurant has been there for many years”. He was a bit more expensive than most of the others in town, but we decided to take his advice, especially as “there are views from the tables upstairs”. Hmmm. The only views upstairs were of a smoking chimney on one side, or straight back down the street on the other side. We opted for the street view and when the whole bottle of Rioja wine and 1.5 litres of mineral water arrived, we thought the meal would be generous too. Hmmm. Rodney’s bean and wild boar soup was fairly tasty, but my croquettes, were a bit boring. Then the main course arrived. Hmmm. Rodney had a tiny, tiny piece of salmon drowned in a pink pepper sauce with just a couple of leaves of iceberg lettuce. My fillets of wild boar turned out to be three tiny mouthfuls covered in a very strong cheese sauce and a handful of chips on the side. Whatever happened to vegetables in Europe, they weren’t even on the menu as an optional side dish? Then the desserts arrived. Hmmm. Rodney chose the cheesecake with caramel and I picked Natillas, which usually turns out to be a sort of crème caramel. Well, Rodney got a crème caramel sitting on a sponge layer, which was a bit weird, and nothing like a cheesecake, while I got a bowl of custard with a dry rich tea biscuit floating in the middle. Rodney didn’t dare to order a coffee, we paid the bill and left. Curiously no other customers came in to the restaurant….
At some point during the day, the weather changed completely and we were overheating on the walk back to the campsite; but neither of us wanted to complain, we just hope the sunshine will last till tomorrow. When we got back, the weather was perfect for lazing by the pool or perhaps even a swim, but the pool was full of noisy children and all the sunbeds were occupied, so we opted instead to laze in our chairs beside Eileen and listen to the sound of the river rushing past.
