Ole' Ole' Ole'
The 3X Rats have always had a great response to all of their runs,
especially the overseas ones, and this - the 10th one - was no
different.
A total of 10 people on 10 bikes were on the trip which set off from the communal
meeting point of Dorchester on Sunday the 26th of Sept for a week in the town
of Aviles in the North of Spain.
We sailed from Plymouth on the Sunday afternoon with much talk of armadas and
adventures to come. There were 2 newcomers to the trip, Mark on a Sprint RS
and Lionel (Loretta) on his trophy 1200.
The ferry trip is often looked upon as a formality, but it also gives everyone
the chance to catch up and get to know each other, as this was an 18 hour trip,
the bar was put to good use before bedtime and everyone was keen to land on
Spanish soil.
The Monday morning dawned with glorious weather, I took a turn around the deck
as the sun was coming up and was surprised to feel how warm it was already,
we made a slow and quiet entrance into the port at Santander, the peace of
the morning only disturbed by the deafening noise of the ships horn/siren as
we neared land. Lionel, Fleur and myself were in front of this diabolical instrument
as it sounded and I think we all thought about popping back to the cabins to
change our underwear.
Theres always a bit of a queue to get out of the port, but we
filtered away and were soon on the fantastic Cantabrian motorway
system heading west.
This is one of the best pieces of motorway I have ever used, just a series
of fast sweeping bends joined by small straights, and the occasional viaduct
or flyover crossing a valley or river - one of them was 1200 metres long.
I had already agreed with Nigel Baker to take to one of the country roads so
as to make the trip a bit more interesting, as well as allowing us to get to
the hotel after check in time.
Once we turned off we soon became aware of the mountains starting to grow on
our left hand side, we knew that we would have a chance of seeing the Picos
de Europa as we passed throught the valley, but unknown to anyone else I had
taken the turning too early and another mountain range obscured our view.
After about 20 miles of a lovely little road I pulled over to check the map,
and make sure everyone was ok.
Using the old Rat leaders trick of 'never admit you're lost, just carry on
a bit further till you get your bearings', I saw that we were indeed on the
wrong road albeit parallel to the one we wanted.
Whilst doing this an old man buzzed up to us on his moped and asked if we were
ok, I fell into conversation with him and after about 5 minutes he pointed
out his house - about 50 yds away - and invited the whole lot of us back to
his for a glass of cider.
Mmmm - difficult decision ! 10 adults offered free drink - in the interests
of European relations we agreed.
And that was just the start of day 1 !
Once we'd had a big lunch we carried on to the hotel which was more than adequate
for our needs, especially at only 36 euros a night.
We didn't really have an itinerary for the rest of the week, everything was
done as a group decision so Day 2 found us doing a bit of a ride inland to
Pravia then onto Salas doubling back down a very twisty mountain road back
to the coast to Luarco were we had lunch, after which we went to the beach
at el Cueva for a couple of hours peace and quiet.
Day 3 was chosen as a rest day so we all went in different directions,
some gift shopping, some bar hopping and some to the beach at Las
Salinas as we always do, we met up in the evening for a meal in
town.
It always amazes me how we can feel so close to England yet be sat in Spain
at 11pm in shirt sleeves and its still 20 degrees - very comfortable.
We knew Day 4 would be a big day as we had planned to see the
famous Picos de Europa, we made an early start and made good time
by using the motorway network again, turning south just after Villaviciosa
(the cider capital of Spain), we headed to Covadongas where hidden
in the folds of the mountains there is a fantastic basilica - virtually
a cathedral with a monastery alongside, it's a fantastic place
to visit and the journey there makes it all worthwhile as the roads
are just so good for motorcycling, just bend after bend of good
road surfaces, no drain covers, no white vans, you get the idea
!
From here we went a bit higher up a single track road, which we called cowshit
climb, to the Lagos de Ercina, 3 lakes just sitting cupped in the folds of
the picos.
This is a dead end road and we were pleased to find a bar at the end of it
to cater to all the sightseers that come this way.
Once done here we headed back down to Cangas de Onis for lunch and a look at
the badly named Roman bridge, which is actually medieval.
Then we headed back to Aviles on the road that we had originally planned to
use on day 1, which turned out to be one of the fastest and best kept A roads
I have ever used, I am sure that at some points our 10 bikes were spread out
over 3 or 4 miles as we played away to our hearts content.
2 old friends, Tony and Lisa, who now live in Spain drove up to
spend a couple of days with us and they were waiting at the hotel
when we got back. They had remembered to bring some riding kit
so they joined us on a bit of a run round the hills then down to
the coast for lunch on Day 5.
Day 6 was spent having a look round Gijon, the 2nd town in Asturias,
with a very nice old part of town and a beautiful beach, the town
suffered terribly during the civil war but has been lovingly rebuilt
and is an excellent place to while away a spare day.
Day 7 was originally just to be a little ride round, but we found
a road signposted for the beach to the east of Gijon and went exploring.
We came across a beach that most people wouldn't be able to find again, hidden
away on the rugged coastline it was a lovely place to while away a philosophical
hour before lunch.
I led the group to a small but very pretty fishing village on the headland
called Tazones,
To our great delight we found that there was a fiesta on that day so we booked
a table for lunch at one of the outdoor restaurants and we were regaled with
local folk dancers and a local pipe band.
They have a kind of bagpipe but without the drone, called gaitas and paraded
through the streets a number of times.
It seemed that all the locals had come down for the day and we were very pleased
and lucky to have found such a great place on this our last full day.
Whilst having lunch a local Triumph owner appeared and once he had parked up
came over to make our acquaintance.
What a day !!
Day 7 saw all the guys heading back to Santander for the ferry
home, my wife, Fleur and myself stayed on for an extra couple of
days, coming back at the end of the week.
We had a fantastic time with so many memories we couldn't put
them all to paper, in fact if we mentioned Lionel (Loretta) at
all we may well be censored !
All those that were there will remember well our 10th trip abroad, and I am
sure that like me will hope to do the same next year.
The RAT organisation certainly gave us all the excuse we needed just to get
out there and give it large !!!!!!!!!!!!!
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