Back to base and a catchup.

After Cares Gorge we returned to Cangas for a another night before planning our trip back to home via a dozen stopover locations to research for Club Motorhome.

5 days later and we arrived back at our base, unloaded and parked the motorhome back in its secure storage all ready for our next trip in about 6 weeks - MOT and service time in the UK, Oh well.... one has to pay for the pleasure eventually! :)

PHOTO Map showing general route and the majority of the stops we made during the trip.

Conclusions? Galicia is STUNNING! Asturias less so but still lovely - the northern coastline is not a patch of the western Galician coast. The Asturias does however have the Picos de Europa which are magnificent - especially on clear days when you can see them! All in our humble opinion anyway :)

Right, where's the maps? Which way shall we head to the UK? Planning has started!

Picos de Europa

Day 23 - 7th June

We had the co-ordinates of a potential wildcamping spot on the other side of the mountains so we set off to see what it was like.

The roads were predictably winding and the drop offs were predictably BIG but the views en-route were well worth the slow pace dodging oncoming vehicles of all shapes and sizes. The scenery of the Picos is something special, our route followed a gorge through parts of the mountains. I think Caroline got a better view than me though as I had to watch where we were going a bit!

We reached a fabulous lake and found the spot, it was a little near the road for our liking but would have been a lovely place to overnight.

PHOTO Lakeside parking

We moved on though as it was still relatively early and we knew of a parking place by a cable car station further on. When we arrived we were disappointed to see no motorhomes overnight signposted :(. I took Digger for a walk and realised that we were in the car park next to a Parador and the cable car was across the road. There was another motorhome already parked up but I couldn't see anyone in it to ask. I called in at the little shop and asked if it was OK to stay overnight? - No problem was the reply.

We parked up and settled in - beer poured and feet up! Then spoke to the other English couple with the other motorhome. They were desperately seeking some sunshine in Spain following a wet holiday in Scotland last year. They only got off the ferry the day before and had spent a very expensive night in a campsite so far. They were seriously considering bolting for Barcelona to find the sun!? We told them about our trip so far and that it would be a lot nearer to go back to some of the places we had been.

Another English van came in and looked around then disappeared. I later saw that it had chosen to go and park in the prohibited area - great for the reputation of responsible motorhomers! (probably the type to moan when they get fined by the Guardia).

A restful day

Day 17 - 1st of June

We decided to stay put today and explore the town. Cangas de Onis is at the side of the Picos de Europa mountains and is a thriving, touristy, but interesting town dating back to Roman times with some lovely old buildings, loads of shops, cafes and restaurants. Keen to try some local cider we stopped at a pavement cafe for lunch.

PHOTO Roman bridge

The cider was served in a bottle, but that was inside a plastic statue thing which dispensed the contents into a glass (held by the statue thing's hand) from a height when a button was pressed at the back of its head - completely naff, but the cider was OK - after a few mouthfuls anyway. We had a bocadillo each and the lot came to 10 Euros, so not bad for a tourist town!

After a restful afternoon of writing up our blog (but again not uploading yet) followed by an Asturian dinner of artisan cheese, jabali sausage (wild boar) washed down with a couple of glasses of local cider - from a proper bottle this time :). We mulled over the options for the next day over a bundle of information provided by the Tourist Office - back to the coast or up into the mountains?