Safe Return Doubtful

Day 42 – at San Martín de Moreda Four degrees below last night, so ice on the inside of the van windows and the dog’s water only lickable. The bonus of course is a clear day, with the temperature into the early 20s mid-afternoon. My assignment today was the Rio…

Day 41 – to San Martín de Moreda Roja spends the first hours of the morning watching life go by at the aire at Villafranca. It’s an attractive place to stay, which, as usual, the community provide and maintain. It’s a five minute walk to town, and late in the…

Day 40 – to Villafranca del Bierzo After a windy night up at 1100 metres, it was just a hop into the next valley this morning, using the village of Montes de Valdueza as base. This is a much more genuine village than Peñalba, and actually has some people living…

Day 39 – at Peñalba de Santiago First stop an extra coffee. I checked past later, I was to be their only customer all day, spending just one euro. The owners are a young couple with a small child, and not bothered about the lack of custom, they see it…

Day 38 – to Peñalba de Santiago I finished Benjamin Myers’s new novel Cuddy this morning over coffee. It’s star is Durham Cathedral, originally built to house St Cuthbert’s tomb in the year 687. I’ll include a review separately, it does bear the usual dark humour of Myers, but is…

Day 37 – to Rio Truchillas, Truchas, León A couple of years ago I was in Montanas Vacias, The Empty Mountains, to the west of Teruel. It is a tremendous area to visit as a cycle tourist, quite spectacular scenery, but there is often big distances between services. The area…

Day 36 – to Rio Truchillas, Truchas, León There was a Guardia Civil car browsing around yesterday. They looked so bored that I had a chat with them. They said that overnight sleeping was not allowed only in the parking areas marked with signs, here in the Sanabria National Park.…

Day 35 – to San Martín de Castañeda Greenland sets the example by no longer changing its clocks to summer-time. They began today. Both the dog and I were more unsettled than usual with the change as we had just come into Spain from Portugal the previous day, and gained…

Day 34 – at Ribadelago There was a disaster here on the early morning of January 9th, 1959 when the dam on the River Tara failed, releasing water from the Vega de Tera reservoir. A total of 144 of the 664 residents of the village were killed. On a quiet…