Apologies for the delay in this update – we’ve had some truck wifi issues. The drive back to the coast from the Picos was along more spectacular roads winding up and down the landscape of steep gorges and past scenic villages. Worryingly we had an engine warning light on Lo11y when we started her up, and she started to go into limp mode again which wasn’t great going up some of the steep climbs. The roads were often narrow with overhanging rock or even more unnerving, rocks that had fallen onto the road, which if they hit our roof would cause untold damage to the solar panels, but they were still in great condition compared to the British roads. We passed by an historic Roman bridge in the town of Cangas de Onis on our way to Llanes, an attractive historic town on the Asturian coast.
We parked up in a free car park for motorhomes on the edge of the town and found ourselves next to another Iveco campervan conversion. Colin wasted no time in introducing himself to the lovely Spanish couple who owned the truck – Raf and his wife. While Colin and Raf drooled over each other vehicles, his wife and I agreed that we will always play second fiddle to the Iveco trucks in our man’s lives. They were heading home, which we think wasn’t too far from Llanes, but they kindly provided Colin with details of the nearest Iveco garage in the region, and the phone number of their trusted mechanic.
It was a warm sunny afternoon, so we wasted no time in walking into town, around the harbour area, then into the historic old town. Being a Sunday, we were conscious things would be closing early, and we stumbled across a nice-looking restaurant in the old town that had a free table for two outside. We had read about Asturian food being good, so we sampled the most famous regional dish, fabada Asturiana, which is a rich smoky stew made with white beans with pork, chorizo and black pudding – not my kind of thing, but the beans and sauce were tasty. We had this with a dish of anchovies and cheese and some pancake type things with different toppings. We had read that portion sizes are very hearty in this area and were grateful the waiter had told us we’d ordered too much initially. The main drink in this area is cider, which is poured in a very weird and wonderful way – the pourer raises the bottle above his/her head and pours it into a glass held well below their waist. This supposedly oxygenates it, but as far as we could see, it meant a lot of it got spilt on the pourer’s shoes. We walked off lunch by a walk along the coastal path that took us back to our parking spot.
Unfortunately, we woke to pouring rain the next morning. We’d mentally prepared ourselves to call in at the Iveco garage today, but as luck would have it, the engine warning light had now gone off. The rain didn’t really relent, so we headed for the incredibly picturesque fishing harbour town of Cudillero. We parked up in the harbour in an amazing spot. The couple parked next to us complemented Lo11y (of course), and Colin ended up helping them start their camper van, which they had only picked up the day before and had a flat battery.
The rain stopped at last, so we had a walk into the town, which sits at the end of the harbour, surrounded by large hills. The colourful old fishermen’s houses cascade down to the water’s edge - described as an amphitheatre layout. There were numerous bars and restaurants around the harbour as well. We had a walk to several of the many viewpoints around town dodging rain showers. We decided we’d stay the night here and walked back in early evening for a meal.
Yet more heavy rain hit us in the following morning. Asturia is also famous for its population of brown bears that live in the mountains, and we had read about a cycle trail (Senda del Oso- The Bears Trail) – a cycling and walking trail built on the tracks of an old mining railroad. We optimistically hoped if we drove the 2 hours to get there the rain may have stopped…….wrong.We tried to convince ourselves it was looking like clearing up, then it would start again, so feeling a bit dejected, we had to admit defeat and headed back to the coast. Before doing so we thought we’d at least go and look at a bear.
About 5kms along the trail there are bear enclosures where two rescued bears live – Paca and Tola. Apparently, their injuries meant they couldn’t be released back into the wild. Maybe they were having a bear siesta, but we could see no sight of them initially, but just as we were giving up, we spotted one of them lying low. She didn’t raise her head to us, so as Colin said, we’d spent about 50 euros in fuel to see a sleeping bear in the rain.
Back on the coastline, now in Galicia, we headed to Ribadeo, to a famous beach called Playa de las Catedrales. We were lucky to get there just before sunset when the tide was out, so we could walk on the beach and marvel at the arches and caves that had been formed by the Atlantic coast battering the coastline. The beach is so popular at peak times, visitors must buy a ticket to visit the beach – thankfully not the case in November. We spent the night in the visitor’s car park above the beach, amused by a German campervan parked on our left move on our right to get some wind projection from Lolly!
The following day, we meandered our way along the wild and beautiful Galician coastline, visiting several lighthouses, and again driving some very scenic bumpy back roads with Colin using our rub bars on the roof to move tree branches away, however later we started getting some terrible grinding noises from Lo11y, seemingly between the cab and box unit. We stopped to look at a very unusual lighthouse (Faro de Punta Frouxeria) which was modernish, square and blue and white. Colin nervously peered around the truck and was overjoyed to find a large pine cone wedged between the cab and box which must have happened when we had to drive through a low overhanging branch earlier. Once removed the scary noise disappeared - phew. After a long day behind the wheel, we found the perfect parking spot for the night near here overlooking a beach, beautiful coastline and with a stunning sunset. We had the place to ourselves once the visitors by car had left. Best overnight spot award so far.
We decided to head straight to A Coruna, the capital of Galicia. It was a lovely bright sunny day, and after feeling a bit apprehensive approaching the big city, we found ourselves parked up in a motorhome parking area right on the seafront in the centre. We got the Bromptons out and cycled down the long-promenaded seafront that stretched around the peninsular. We noticed that there were lots of British visitors, then realised there was an enormous cruise ship in the port. We cycled into the main square in the old town. It was nothing special after some of the other places we’d been. The bars around the edge were full of cruise ship Brits. We called in at a restaurant and booked a table for dinner. Most restaurants don’t open until 8.30 which is late for us considering we’re normally tucked up in bed with books by 10pm, so we thought we’d be wild that night. We continued our cycle around the headland to the Tower of Hercules, which is believed to be the world’s oldest surviving lighthouse, possibly built by the Romans in the 1st Century AD. At 180 feet tall it was pretty impressive but it is a bit like triggers broom and has been rebuilt many times.
Next job was to take my Ribble bike to a bike shop to see if they could straighten my derailleur which had got bent when I fell off it the week before. They did manage to sort it – the mechanic said he’d never seen an ebike like it before and was very impressed with it and our Bromptons.
We managed to stay awake through our dinner that evening. It was a delicious meal washed down with a nice local red wine.
The following morning, we had another cycle around on the Brompton’s which was a nice way to start the day. All in all, we found A Coruna a pleasant place to visit, probably helped by the bright sunshine while we were there, but 24 hours was long enough. Next stop is the end of the Pilgrims trail, the beautiful city of Santiago de Compostela.
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