Got up to a mix of sun and cloud – don’t think it rained during the night like they’d expected. Took the doggies for a short walk, ate breakfast, then sat at a picnic table to make use of the fast wi-fi here.

Took a photo of the campground’s dog – very large and fluffy, and super friendly.

Got on the road shortly after 10:00, heading east and north – didn’t go quite as far east as Lourdes, which is supposed to be absolutely over-run with stupid tourists – glad we by-passed it. Passed a cavalcade of old cars on the road – some of them were pretty neat.

Skirted around the western edge of Tarbes, then got onto the N21 northeast then north. Went thru Auch and continued north to the town of Lectoure, where we turned west. Tried to find a campground that Colin had stayed at before, but it was closed.

Went in a bit of a loop on some very small back roads, then headed west to the town of Condom. Passed a couple of goose/duck farms – they make a lot of foie gras around here – it’s very mean and I’d never eat it.

Found a municipal campgound next to the river – it’s quite nice, and very cheap compared to some of the others. The rain started right after we arrived, and didn’t quit for even a minute. Colin has picked up a bit of a cold so stayed in the campervan while I went for a walk.

There’s actually a canal here with a lock right beside the campground and the rest of the river a few metres away. A nice park, and a path that likely goes right into the town. Listened to news and music videos on the ipad with the ear-buds in – went to bed at a decent time.

Didn’t sleep too bad – the tractors pulling the huge bins with the hand-picked grape harvest to a facility down the road seemed to go by all night long, though (we wondered later if they picked all night as well as all day). It was cold, but not wet so taking the tent down and packing up didn’t take long. Before we left we went up to the cafe, which wasn’t open yet, so sat outside for a bit using the wi-fi. The signal here isn’t that great, so didn’t get much done before we left just after 10:00.

Took the main highway northeast, bypassing Pamplona where we veered southeast for a bit then got onto smaller roads to the town of Ochagavia. Nothing was open – 3 hour lunchtime not over yet – so we decided to keep going into France.

Passed into the foothills of the Pyranees, and through many pretty towns, including one that has Roman (I think) excavations happening, then into the real mountains. Saw a herd of horses on the road – they looked like mountain horses, slightly shorter, rounder and shaggier than regular horses. A herd of sheep was on the mountain right beside the road – you could hardly tell them apart from the rocks as they were all the same colour and size.

Crossed the border at a tunnel above the tree-line at Pic d’Orhy – there were cattle-guards in the road at each end. I guess they have to keep those short-legged chubby Spanish cows out of France – ha ha. I don’t think I mentioned it before – in every country there are always signs ‘watch for deer’ with a deer jumping, or ‘watch for cows’ with the silhouette of a cow – the cows on the signs in Spain are very chubby and have very short legs compared to the cows on all of the other countries’ signs so it’s been quite humorous to me every time I see a sign – the actual cows look about the same as those elsewhere.

Down, down, down the other side of the Pyranees into southern France. Just after one village we were slowed right down by a herd of sheep being moved along the highway – there were 5 herders at the back of the herd and another four or five at the front, as well as a van (to warn oncoming traffic, I think), also two dogs, one of which looked like a small sheep himself. There were hundreds of them – we pulled over for a bit so they could get further ahead and we wouldn’t be pushing them.

Not far around the next corner they were all stopped towards the side of the road and there were a couple of big trucks and a holding pen or two where the sheep (and a few cows) were being sorted for transport.

At another village there were a couple of men directing traffic in the middle of the highway (one doing a very poor, kind of spastic job), and dirt bikes everywhere – there was some sort of dirt bike race happening and the whole field on the left of the highway was covered with stalls and things.

A little further on at another village there was a festival of some sort – a parade across the bridge of local folks dressed in traditional costumes, with girls holding bread baskets (that were empty) and boys with red berets playing a drum and flutes/pipes.

Drove up thru Oloron-Ste. Marie, where we did a bit of food shopping, then continued on a bit southeast to a lovely place called Louvie-Juzon and a campground Colin had looked up. It’s on a hillside and covered with trees – a very nice, kind of remote place.

I went for a look around, and near one end there’s a cabin that had no one in it so I went to the back where I could see stairs leading up to a bench. At the top you can see across the treetops to a mountain peak – just beautiful.

The ground was soaked from rain earlier in the day, and it was supposed to rain again so I didn’t end up setting the tent up. Read for a bit, then was just starting to fall asleep when we were startled by the sounds of fireworks. The dogs, especially Mo, got quite excited. There seems to be a lot happening all around here this weekend.

Every time I woke up during the night I thought it was pouring rain, and in the morning when it started getting light I had no idea what time it was as I’d left both of my ‘clocks’ in the campervan. The church bells were no help at all – the ones I did hear ding-donged 32 times – not sure what time it was supposed to signify.

When I did get out of the tent I found it hadn’t rained at all – everything including the ground was dry – it must have just been that the wind was so bad. It was just before 8:00 when I went into the campervan to make tea – Colin wasn’t up yet so I made my tea and took it up to the cafe to access the wi-fi. The signal wasn’t great, so I finished my tea and went back for breakfast – leftover lamb on a bun. Found out it had gotten down to 2 degrees in the night – glad I have a decent sleeping bag and my black blankie.

Hung out the clothes again to finish drying, then went for another ride on the Camino, which once again was just metres away from the campground. Gabriel had given me a local map and tried to tell me that I must go west for my ride, but I headed east into a fierce head-wind instead – I figured go out with the head-wind and come back with a tail-wind. I mention ‘fierce wind’ a lot in this area, because it is just that – I don’t think I could live here, although it does power a lot of wind turbines, which is great.

I rode for a few km, passed an old convent, then when the path left the road and turned into dirt I followed it, which I regretted a little later but didn’t want to turn around and go back.

I could see the road not far to the right, but there was no way to get to it for several kms. Most people were very nice and friendly, but one unhappy-looking bag had to say ‘you are going to wrong way’ which made me wonder – where did she see the rule that said you could only follow the Camino from east to west? And where was the sign that said anything about bikes not being allowed on this stretch? She was full of crap and I knew it so I just kept going.

I finally found a side lane that went in the direction of the road, and followed it. Eventually arrived at the town of Hontanas, another major stopping place for walkers – lots of hostels and cafes. It was only about 9 km from where I started, but because I’d stopped a few times, and followed the dirt trail for quite a ways, not to mention the head-wind, it had taken me almost an hour.

I turned around and stopped for a few minutes to eat some peanuts and have a bit of wine in front of a mural of a pilgrim and the Camino route, then headed back to the campground.

I thought it would now be warm enough to ride with my rain jacket instead of the hoodie, but after a very short time I pulled over and put the hoodie back on – it was very chilly.

Got back and Gabriel asked where I’d gone – he was disappointed I hadn’t taken his suggestion to go west, and seemed to think I was a bit of a wimp for not going further than I had.

Colin and I decided to get on the road again rather than stay another night – this is a nice campground and the people are great but we wanted to move on and get going back to France.

We followed quiet back roads so took a bit longer, but got to see some nice countryside – the road, for once, didn’t parallel the new motorway the whole way. At one hilltop there were wind turbines on all sides – we were surrounded by the turbines, and a network of electric lines going in every direction, but to me it’s a lot better site than seeing oil wells and pumps all over. I must also mention Spanish roads in general – there are new highways everywhere, even when the existing older, slightly more winding ones are still in good shape – lots of viaducts and tunnels. We figure that it must have been a large infrastructure/make work project funded by the EU a few years ago.

We drove as far as Fuermayor, near Logrono before stopping – the campground was ok but the office didn’t give Colin the discount he should have gotten for having his ACIS card so it seemed a little expensive.

The electric still doesn’t work in the campervan as we didn’t go to the dealership in Logrono, but that’s ok until we get back to Mansle. The gas for the stove still works, as does the fridge when on battery and the phone/ipad charger so we can manage.

Had a good sleep, but once again it was too cold to do yoga – no rain, but condensation was very heavy and the grass is soaking wet. More church chimes – one that had a ding-dong bell, and another that bonged out of tune and tinny-sounding – twice at the top of each hour, one minute apart. Nice shower, although I had to hand-hold the wand as the hose was cracked and the water didn’t flow much if it was on it’s hook. Once again the building was heated – so nice.

Had a nice breakfast, packed up the tent and all the gear, then went for my Camino ride. I left the campsite at 10:26 and was on the trail at 10:27 – just had to cross the road. After about 4 km the trail followed a very quiet side road, so I ended up riding on road instead of the dirt trail. The road was very quiet – I think a total of five or six cars went by the whole time I was on it.

I stopped at an old church on the way, then at what was supposed to be a bird-watching place, but you couldn’t get to the watching platform because the walkway to it was broken.

Passed through the town of Bercianos del Real Camino, found the trail again at the other end of the town, and continued on until I had gone exactly 15 km, where I turned around. I stopped at a bench 2 km back and ate a few nuts and had a 12 minute break before starting out again.

Back at the bird-watching place I saw four cyclists pulled over doing something to a wheel, so I stopped to see if they were ok. They were just finishing pumping up a tire and obviously had everything they needed but we stared chatting. It turns out they are not only Canadian, but actually from Kamloops – we all laughed when I told them that I usually say I’m from Vancouver because they do the same thing. They rented their bikes over here and are going to ride much of the Camino, then want to go to Portugal before heading home around Thanksgiving.

Got back to the campground earlier than I expected since I had a head-wind almost the whole way and thought it would take much longer. Headed to our next destination, once again on the smaller roads. Colin remembered that Ponferrada, where we had stopped and shopped at yesterday, was the host of the cycling world championships a couple of years ago, and I recalled that I had watched it on tv.

Found the next campground at Castrojeriz no problem and when we were checking in the fellow asked if we might want dinner – a few times a week they have a special dinner and tonight they are having lamb roasted over an open fire and they need to know how many people to cook for – yes!!

I was just setting up my tent when the older fellow (Gabriel) from the office came and asked Colin why we had a tent when we had the campervan – he could hardly believe it when we told him that I slept in the tent and Colin in the campervan – he was fairly incredulous, and walked away shaking his head. After I was setup I joined Colin at the cafe for a drink and some wi-fi.

There’s a couple of very nice ladies, one Irish and one German, that we stared taking with. Agnes, the German, has two adorable chihuahuas that she’s taking with her on the Camino, and she and Jacinta met today on the Way. I asked if they were partaking of the lamb dinner, and Agnes informed us that she had been too late – they didn’t just need to know how many to cook for, there was only enough for 12 people, and we were here first – lucky us!

We did a load of laundry in the machine, then hung it on lines to dry in the fierce wind. I took a short walk up towards the castle on the hill above us, but didn’t go very far – the wind isn’t only fierce, it’s very cold. Also passed an old church.

Went to the restaurant for our lamb dinner just after 7:30 – the place was almost packed. When they brought the first table’s lamb out my mouth started watering – it comes in a large baking dish steaming hot and gets cut right in front of you. After dishing out some to each person the rest gets covered in tin foil to keep it as hot as possible. Side dishes of salad and fries came next. The waitress indicated we are meant to eat the lamb with our fingers to get the most from it, and brought packets of wet clothes to clean up with.

The lamb was awesome – I ate as much as I could and wrapped the rest in the tin foil to take back for breakfast. Once again I didn’t have room for the dessert. Back at the campervan we took our still-damp clothes off the lines hoping to have time to complete the drying in the morning. Made some herbal tea, then got into my tent – sleep came fast.

Woke up early very cold, but too tired to move the black blanket out from under me to over me, so lay there feeling chilly and not quite asleep. I did do the sleeping bag zipper up, which I have only done once before and was a bit warmer.

I had a nice fairly-hot shower – the shower facility was actually heated so that was unusual – no sudden shivers as soon as I turned the water off. It was far too cold outside to do yoga, so we just ate breakfast then tried to leave.

We had told the office yesterday that we would be leaving around 10 and she told us they opened at 9:30 so it seemed like it should be ok. But when we went to leave right at 10 the office was locked tight. We hung around for 1/2 hour – Colin calling out and knocking on their house door repeatedly, while I was getting the last use of their wi-fi. They never did appear, so we put some cash in an envelope with a note written on the back and left it under a rock at the office door – hope they don’t sic the camping cops on us.

Drove mostly east and a little bit south – stuck to lesser highways so it took a little longer but was nice and more relaxing. The mountains suddenly disappeared and the plains began. Went thru Ponferrada, which was a larger town – saw a really neat mural on the wall of a house – stopped for food as well as gas, then continued on.

We stopped for lunch on the side of the road just after 1:00 – I got out to take a couple of photos – there was another of the big bull figures at the top of the last hill, so as I lined up my shot a small white van pulled in and one of the fellows in it said something to me in Spanish – it appeared that they just wanted me to take their picture, so I did, then they crossed over the road to a truck-stop/hotel on the other side – quite funny!

It got hotter and hotter as well – up to 26 or more by the time we reached the town of Sahagun. Tried to find the campground, which is not well sign-posted, so drove around a bit before locating it – office closed until 4:30. Went back into the town and parked the campervan – walked with the doggies a bit then sat at an outdoor cafe and had a glass of wine.

Back at the campground after 4:30 to check in and setup – nice enough place, and literally right across the road from the Camino. I was having a great face-time chat with Dominic when it failed, then couldn’t get back on. There are some really fantastic-looking trees over some of the paths here – they seem to grow together at the top as if they’re one tree coming from both sides.

We’d decided to walk back into town for dinner at the cafe, so left after 6:30. It wasn’t a far walk, and the evening was very pleasant. When we got there the waiter told us that the kitchen doesn’t open until 8, even though the menu we’d looked at said they served food from before noon until later at night. We went to another cafe across the square, but their kitchen had already closed for the day, so we returned to our original choice to wait – of course the wait was made better by a glass of local red wine and a plate of local olives that was brought without asking.

We were on what I think was the main square of the town – lots of kids playing with skipping ropes, riding little bicycles, kicking balls – all laughing and having a great time. One of the little boys had a very annoying ‘police horn’ on his bike, but he was having fun.

I think they could have used at least one more waiter – he was doing his best, but patience was needed. We both ordered off of the ‘set menu’ – I asked for Catalonian soup to start, with ‘stew meat’ as my main dish, and Colin asked for Russian salad followed by beef steak.

When my soup arrived I was quite impressed – almost a meal in itself and Colin’s salad was huge. We both dug in – the soup was very delicious and Colin was enjoying his salad when the waiter came back and said ‘Russian salad??’ to Colin, then removed his plate from under him as he was eating and replaced it with an entirely different one – apparently he had brought the wrong one and how was Colin to know? The second salad also seemed very good, so he dug in again. We both wondered what was done with the first salad – was it chucked, or did they just throw a couple things back on it and serve it to the proper person?

My main course was wonderful – beef stew that was so tender I didn’t even need my knife to cut it, served with fries. Colin said his steak was good also. I didn’t have room for dessert – it was all I could do to finish my meal, and when it came time to pay Colin said it was his treat!

All this time the kids were still playing in the square – the doggies got a lot of attention from time-to-time, but remained very calm. Slowly but surely the square started to empty – I wondered how late some of the little kids stayed up as we were still eating after 9:00, and it was a school night.

Walked back to the campground and headed straight to my tent – used the wi-fi a bit, then fell asleep quickly.

Kind of chilly, rainy morning, so didn’t do yoga – just packed up and got ready to go. We first went southwest then turned onto the A6 highway going southeast. Passed over and through mountains with lots of trees, got rained on from time-to-time, saw a rainbow over a windfarm.

We went to a campground in Carracedelo that Colin had looked up but there were signs that dogs weren’t allowed! Colin asked at reception if they would make an exception and the guy just pointed to the sign – this has not happened before and was a bit of a surprise. Colin looked up the next closest campground, which was about 20 km back up the highway near Vega de Valcarce, so he programmed that in and off we went.

We missed a turn at some point and went into a small village, where the GPS directed us up and down and around some very narrow streets to get back in the right direction.

This is a very busy area for Camino hikers – it’s part of the main route and there are hostels and cafes everywhere catering to the hundreds of hikers a day that come thru.

We did see signs for a campground, but Miss GPS told us to go up the very steep road to the right so we followed her directions. After we’d negotiated several hairpin turns she announced ‘you have arrived at your destination’ – we were several hundred feet directly above the campground we’d seen the signs for.

Drove along the narrow road until there was a spot to turn around, then headed back down. The campground is almost 1 km along a narrow dirt road and is very lovely. It’s like we’re on a farm – cows in the next field and everything, right on a creek (they call it a river, but I’d say it’s more like a creek).

Got the tent setup and had pasta for lunch, then went for a bike ride back to the village we’d ended up in by mistake. It’s a really pretty ride, and there are two supermarkets and a bread shop. Got a few supplies, then continued along for a bit before turning back. There are some cyclists following the Camino, and they all waved or smiled at me as I passed them in the opposite direction.

I rode about 1 km past the turnoff to the campground just to see what the Camino was like on that side, then turned back and returned to the campsite. Colin wasn’t back yet from his walk with the doggies, so I took my ipad up to the restaurant, which was closed. I just wiped the rain off a chair and sat at a table drinking red wine from my flask and eating chips I’d just bought at the store in the village.

There are a few other campers here – two campervans and a cyclist that arrived after us. One of the campervans has two very small dogs – a chihuahua and a baby yorkie or something, and there is a siamese cat that belongs to the campground folks. They were looking for the cat when we arrived – it was on their roof.

They have really good wi-fi at the campground so I got pretty well caught up on everything – had a long face-time chat with Dominic. Listened to TMZ-live in the tent with the earbuds, then fell asleep.

Didn’t sleep too bad – I kept thinking that the wind was still howling when I finally realized it was the ocean crashing all night long – duh! It didn’t sound this loud at the last ocean-side campground, but we were on a hill and perhaps sheltered a bit from the sound.

Had a great shower – lots of hot water, but chilly once I got out. Did yoga for the first time in days – it always feels especially good after not be able to do it for awhile. Took the little ones for a walk across the road and to look at the beach – rays of sun coming thru the clouds.

Had some of my left-over chicken and chips for breakfast, then headed down to the campground’s restaurant for some tea and wi-fi. They don’t have regular black tea here – you have a choice of black with chocolate, or black with mint – I went for the chocolate. Maybe it’s an acquired taste – it wasn’t horrible, but I don’t think I’d get it every day.

Asked the waiter how to get to the city we can see to the west but apparently you have to go around a fairly large inlet, but there is a smaller town on this side of the inlet that has a store or two. I got on the bike and went for a little ride – found the store no problem, but couldn’t find any cream. I even asked another shopper and she wasn’t able to locate it either, so I bought what is probably whipping cream instead – hope it works for Colin’s cereal.

After shopping I took a ride down the road a bit further – the town is strung out along the highway and down several side roads. When I returned I took a different road than the one I came on and ended up right across the inlet from the city (Foz). The ‘scenic route’ back to the campground was easy to figure out – just headed east along the coastline.

Most of the houses along the road are fairly large – they look like they might be weekend/summer homes for rich people from one of the larger cities or something.

After I dropped off the groceries and had the rest of the chicken and chips for lunch I pedalled back to the restaurant where we had the lunch yesterday and had a glass of wine while I caught up on a couple days of my blog.

I then spent some time down on the beach – some folks are tanning, some are actually swimming, but there’s a real wind blowing and I don’t find it all that hot, although it is very beautiful. I came to a bit of a decision on what to do at the end of the month, but still have some more thinking to do. For now I know where we’re heading tomorrow and that’s enough for the moment.

Read the ‘Thousand Years of Annoying the French’ book some more – still finding it very humorous in addition to teaching me a bit more history.

Said goodbye to the Belgians, who were planning to spend a bit of time in Pola de Lena, and left not long after – there were just a couple of folks left of the dozens that had been there.

Went back down to the edge of Pola de Lena, then took the highway north again to the ocean.

Went west along the coast until just before Foz, where we turned off the highway but were diverted because there’s a race or something happening on the local roads. The diversion wasn’t major and we continued on the the campsite Colin had looked up. It’s right across the road from the ocean, and seems very nice.

Got the tent setup, then went to the campground’s restaurant/bar for a drink and to use their wi-fi – connection not that great, but better then nothing. Got caught up a bit on last week’s blogs, but loading the photos was frustrating.

We walked down the ocean path a bit to another restaurant – it had better wi-fi. There is an awesome path all along this part of the coast, made of slate tiles in some parts and large stones in others – just wonderful to walk on while next to the ocean. We ended up having a late lunch – I had a huge plate of chicken breast on top of fries, all covered with a cheese/creme sauce. I ate and ate and didn’t manage to finish half of it. I looked up on google translate how to ask to take it home with me and showed the waitress – got a doggie bag (for me – not the dogs!).

Walked back to camp and sat in their restaurant again while we watched the final day of the Vuelta on tv. Also face-timed Dominic – so nice to see and hear him. No surprises in the Vuelta – I really wish someone would attack out of the blue and catch them all with their arms linked and drinking their champagne, but no luck. Froome won, Nibali second – home-town hero Contador managed to come fourth, and Cdn Michael Woods came seventh. I want to think that if Contador hadn’t gotten a stomach virus in Andorra he might have won – of course we’ll never know and he says he won’t be back next year.

Went back to the campervan and made some nighty-nite tea, then into the tent, read a bit and had no trouble falling asleep. All in all a lovely, fairly quiet b-day.

It rained off an on most of the night, along with fairly heavy wind. When I got out and looked around the parking lot I saw that quite a few vehicles had arrived since I last looked yesterday evening, and more just kept coming.

The morning started out quite cloudy, but slowly the wind blew the clouds away – I took a walk up the hill to the west and saw more hiking trail markers, and shortly after I got back it became warm enough to change into shorts and remove the merino wool shirt.

Two cars of police and a moto arrived, followed shortly by the banner boys, who took around two hours to erect one simple banner. We now have roadside barriers as well, so will have to choose our watching spot carefully as we won’t be able to run back and forth across the road easily.

Just before lunch the clouds re-appeared, and we could barely see the mountains to the northwest. The rain hit, but didn’t last long – after a surprisingly short time the sky was clear again and mostly blue.

Met a couple of Irish guys – Brian and Mark – and chatted with them for a bit. When the rain returned we all fit into the campervan until it passed. They were on bikes and had ridden to the end of the stage yesterday, then back up to where we were again today.

While waiting I took a photo of a little girl on her dad’s shoulders – I showed it to her and to him and they thought it was great – nothing like the paranoid b**** at the Worcester Festival! I ended up with several more hats from the cavalcade – I traded a kid a red one for a green one and now have a complete collection of red, green, and polka-dot – as well as another packet of olives.

One more time the rain hit hard and the wind picked up but I was standing right at the summit banner and didn’t leave – I just tucked my camera under my jacket and got soaked to the skin. Shortly before the helicopters showed up a woman from Cofidis walked in front of the barrier and stood right in front of me – she had an armful of water bottles for her team’s riders. I asked her to please not stand on front of me and she politely moved several feet further up the road. However, right before the police cars that precede the racers came all of the other team’s water carriers arrived and they spread out all along the barrier right in front of all of the fans that, like me, had been standing there for hours in the rain.

The rain did stop right before the racers appeared – perfect timing. I did get a few decent photos, but missed the best chances because of the damn water folks – one in particular really got in my way and I have several shots of the back of her fat head. She totally blocked out Contador, and everyone else I cared about. She did give me a water bottle afterwards (Astana), but I would rather have seen the racers. If she had stayed in one spot I could have shot around her, but she kept moving every time one of her riders came up the hill – it was impossible to predict which direction she would weave to next – incredibly frustrating for me.

It took quite a while for all of the racers to pass – they were very strung out in small bunches, with all of the sprinters in a large group at the back. The Belgians next to us watched the end of the race on their satellite tv and told us that Contador had won the stage – a fitting way to end the last race of his career.

The Grand Tour part of my trip is now over – big SOBs!!

Quite a few campervans stayed for the night but almost all of the cars cleared out. One of the Belgians had locked his keys in their motorhome so had called their insurance company who sent a guy up the hill as soon as the roads were re-opened. It took him a while but he finally got into the motorhome by unscrewing the top vent and climbing in from the roof.

Got up at what I thought was a few minutes after the alarm at 7:00 and went and had a shower (it was closer to 8:20). I pushed what I thought was the light button and the water started pouring. I quickly got undressed and jumped in, and found it very hot. There was a knob on another wall that I turned until it wasn’t so scorching hot, then it suddenly got very cold. I figured out that the flat button on one wall is the hot, and is on a timer that stops after a minute or so, and the knob on the other wall is the cold with no timer. In the end I had a great shower and felt much better being nice and clean.

Had tea and breakfast at the campervan, then went down for a cup of tea at the cafe. Loaded a couple more photos to my blog, but again the speed was lousy so didn’t even finish Monday’s. I took a couple of photos of the coastline to the west when Colin asked if I saw the cows – sure enough there were a bunch of cows grazing like mountain goats on the very steep hillside right above the drop-off to the ocean.

A group of four cyclists came out onto to terrace and one of the women took a couple of photos – I heard them speaking english so I pointed out the cows to her. They asked where I thought they were from so I said ‘well, I would guess either Australia or New Zealand’. They collectively groaned when I first said Australia – they must get the bigger, inferior (in their opinion) comparison a lot, just like I do with people thinking I’m american. I pointed out that that’s why I have Cdn flags on several of my things – we all laughed at that.

We headed west just before noon, and left the highway at Llanes to try to find a store – it must be a festival day or something – there were so many people, some in traditional costumes, all going to the city centre, so we went around and back to the highway.

We tried another, town – Ribadesella, and had more luck. It seems a little bit touristy, but we found parking and walked with the dogs into the centre where we found a market. I picked out a couple of bottles of wine – 3.90 euros each, then went up to the counter to choose bread. At the counter I noticed a few more bottles so I asked, in Spanish, how much? He responded in Spanish and I didn’t understand a word, so he punched it into the cash register – only 1.70 each. I asked if they were vino tinto, and they were – good deal! I then asked for a baguette for Colin, and pointed to something that looked like a whole-grain roll or loaf for myself – shopping done.

Back on the highway headed southeast to the town of Pola de Lena, which wasn’t as charming as some of the towns have been, but is on tomorrow’s stage route. After driving to the south end of the town we finally got on the north-bound road and drove towards the Alto del Cordal, the second last climb of the stage.

About 3/4 of the way up we found the first place that it was possible to pull over to camp – it was a parking area of some kind of old unused industrial or mining place, and there was only one campervan there. We decided to go for it, so got parked and setup the table and chairs so no one could park in front of us next to the road.

I wanted to see the summit of the climb and knew it wasn’t that far so went for a walk up the road. After just over a km there were two vans parked at a fairly wide turnoff so I asked the lady how far the summit was – I think she thought I meant how high, so her answer made no sense to me and I continued walking.

The summit was actually just around the corner – maybe a few hundred yards. It had a large flat parking area and only three or four campervans there, including the Belgians we’d seen before. I took a couple of pics of the place, then hoofed it back down the hill to let Colin know – we quickly made the decision to move so packed up the table and chairs. Just before we left I jumped out of the campervan to go to the back to check the door and in trying to avoid some large weeds that were right beside it I managed to get my left ankle tangled in a blackberry vine. Pulling to free it was not the thing to do – it just made it tighter. I now have a nice ring of bleeding scratches and little cuts around the ankle, and they sting too.

What an excellent place that we moved to – I think it’s a parking area for hikers as there are trails all over the place. The Belgians were happy to see us – had a couple of nice chats with them. One of the ladies gave me an antibiotic gell for the bites on my arm – I still couldn’t find my cortisone cream and none of the pharmacies in the towns we’d gone into had been open.

I took the doggies for a walk up the hill to the east – you can see so far in every direction and it’s all one beautiful vista after another.


In the evening we heard cow bells coming very close so I went outside to investigate – a rancher in a car had come down one of the trails that I’d taken the doggies for a walk on, and got out with a big bag – he threw down a couple of handfuls of large kibbles and the cows ran for them. Who needs a dog for herding when you have cow-kibbles?

With the help of another guy that spoke a tiny bit of english I asked if the cows had names, but the farmer said they only had numbers. Then I asked why only two of them had bells on – were they the leaders, or the bossiest ones, but he said no reason, just that some do so he knows where they are. Then I wanted to know if they were milk or meat cows – he said ‘carne’ which I know means meat. I said they looked like they would be delicious and the other two guys agreed then we all laughed.