Riding Spanish Mountains
With Duncan Gough
Duncan Gough
Giving a talk on the boat, Brittany Ferries to Santander
First thing to record about Santander was heat, more heat and queues. Lots of bikes, all ready to ride, all impatient to get going, some beginning to take off layers, all well behaved, well mostly. A few other women, average 1 in 30. Many shiny new bikes ready to thrash their way round the Picos. We were not going there, Duncan was very adamant, ‘let them all go to the Picos, we are following my route, it’s much more interesting.’
So we began, out of Santander and almost immediately heading uphill. Soon, we were on twisting winding roads, switchbacks, sharp to the right, again and again and sharper and twistier. I missed a few, managed some brilliantly, missed a couple more, fanning out beyond the middle of the road and praying for no traffic. When I was getting desperate to never see another bend, we arrived at the top of something. And we could look out over the mountains seeing from where we had come.
mountains and on the right the road we had ridden
Where did we stay that night? I have no idea. I was so tired that the food went down, the evening went by in a blur of images. All I remember was the others drank a lot of booze, that the bed was comfortable, the room light and airy and I was asleep immediately.
The next day all the turns were left, twisting and tightening as we went up, widening and easing as we descended. Cliffs jutted above us and the line in the road faded, vultures circled above us. Duncan slowed at bird sightings, he is a keen and knowledgable bird lover. We finally stopped in a village for a coffee, water and a break. In this dark bar I grabbed a photo of my fellow travellers.
We stayed in Burgos the following night. Met up with Jaqui Furneaux. I went off on my own the following day and enjoyed myself, riding down the slightly dilapidated N road, sailing along straighter roads nursing my ME which unsurprisingly had flared. The pic above was one of the remarkable views I encountered. as if the mountain was belching smoke and billowing out. It wasn’t of course but heavy mist at the top which I was glad to be away from. Black coffee all the way and a greasy tortilla in a badly chosen roadside cafe.
We met up and filled up and on we went. Allowing for the fact that my ME was pretty bad all the way through is the reason place names are missing from this blog. But Al Barracin was a two day stop and a chance to get some photos.
This blog is slightly shortened due to my own illness, but I will do a separate 2nd half at a later date.
apologies but PTSD got in the way of everything.
Thank you Duncan for a wonderful trip. https://www.duncan-spanish-travel.com/tourwithduncan
See you soon.