Tuesday 12th July 2016
This far west, and on euro time, the sun doesn't come up much before
7am. We make coffee and pack the gear, then collect bread, croissants
and eggs from the camp shop when it opens. We are on the road at 10am.
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| Luarca bay from the campsite |
Today
is a mountain bimble day. We head south into the mountains and then
follow a winding route up and down the Picos heights, wriggling around
the amazing roads, in an overall easterly direction.
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| Lovely roads in the Picos de Europa |
This is
technical riding at its best. It's a challenge and pretty tiring hauling
the big old K around the switchback roads. But there is virtually no
traffic here in the heart of the Picos range and the road surfaces are,
in the main, quite excellent.
We stop for coffee at the
inappropriately named Casa El Terrible. As always in Spain the coffee is
excellent (and cheap - please note England).
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| coffee stop at the terrible cafe |
We total
200 miles from 10am to 6.30pm and end the day at Riano, at a beautiful
campsite high on the hillside overlooking the lake below.
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| Where are we? |
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We
cross 3 or 4 high passes, the biggest takes us to over 1700 metres. The
roads are mostly very good with a few rutted and crumbling stretches. I
think we see no more than 4 other bikers all day.
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| Picos overlook |
At
one point we are held up for 20 minutes while a JCB digs a deep hole in
the road and fills a tipper truck, blocking the entire width of the
road.
The last section down to Riano is a very fast sweeper and
the evening sun is shining bright over the lake as we come to Camping
Riano. It is a neat and well-run site overlooking the lake and town.
There is a bar-restaurant so no need to wander in search of food.
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| The view from Camping Riano |
We
are all pretty tired after the long ride so after a supper of salad and
various fried bits of pig we are in the sleeping bags early. We are
over 1000 metres above sea level here and the air is sharp and cold
after the sun goes down behind the mountain.
Not a time for sitting up late in the cool of the night.
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