Woke up in the middle of the night to one of the dogs burrowing into my sleeping bag with me – it reminded me of Sly snuggling up and almost made me homesick for a minute. It was little Mo and she stayed with me for the rest of the night.

Got up shortly after 8 to a beautiful morning – clear blue sky, but on the chilly side. There were still only six campervans where we were, but more started arriving throughout the morning. I went for a walk up the hill a bit – we’re not very far from the top of the climb.

I saw the Dutch fellow that had been at the ITT the other day – there are now several of the same folks here that we met already.

The mosquito bites I got on my right arm the other day have really flared up – Colin thinks they might be horse fly or deer fly bites. They were only a bit itchy, but one of them is about 2 1/2 inches across with a much darker red bit in the middle with a blister type thing in the centre. Colin gave me some stuff to spray on it, then later some other stuff to rub on. Hopefully it isn’t infected and looks worse than it really is.

Partway through the morning a service car came by – they were scooping up the cow patties off of the road – the pooper-scooper patrol!

Took the doggies for a walk up the hill in the other direction – a nice quiet side road. More cars coming all the time. Had a nice lunch, then moved the table to the roadside to watch the action.

The cavalcade again came through very quickly, but this time I scored – 3 hats, a packet of olives, and a whole bunch of candies (that I gave away to the kids behind us).

At one time I counted over 50 cars in addition to 11 or 12 campervans in the area – I couldn’t believe how long they allowed cars and cyclists to keep coming up and down the road before the racers arrived.

I moved up the road a bit to watch the race – as usual it was preceeded by the helicopters and cheering from crowds below us.

I got some really good shots, including one of Contador – it was such fun! It took a while for all of the racers to pass in small bunches – probably 15 or 20 minutes from the first to the last.

I was just before a watering station so after the last racer went thru I walked up and asked an Orica Scott guy if I could have a bidon (water bottle) and he gave me one! I should have gone up earlier and asked every team’s guy – I could have a collection.

Colin took down the flags and we were on our way again in about 1/2 hour. We drove north to the coast passing out of Cantabria and into Asturia. They have a very interesting way of slowing down the traffic when you reach a village – rather than having a speed bump or two there’s a blinking yellow light with a red light about 50 metres further on. As soon as you slow down enough the red light starts to blink yellow so you never really have to stop.

Colin consulted his GPS for the nearest campsite and there was one only a couple of km away – right on the ocean. It was beautiful – all terraced and with lots of awesome tent sites.

We went down for a drink and to use the wi-fi, which was very slow. We actually stayed for dinner, which was just excellent – we ordered a starter of fried squid and then shared a main course of ‘cheek of pork’ – it was so tender and delicious!

Face-timed Dominic to let him know I was ok, but still would likely be out of touch for a couple more days, then went back to the campervan and read a bit before hitting the hay.

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