Cycling by eBike across the Picos de Europa mountain range from Santander and then onto the broad flat open plateau of La Meseta to Salamanca.
Tuesday 1 October, 2019. Santander to Espinillo |132 km|
[Sunny and 20°C – I was cycling in shorts, T-shirt and sandals. The route took in: Camargo, Torrelavega, Yermo, Riaño de Ibio and Villanueva de la Pena, then along the River Saja to El Tojo and finally up the winding passes on the CA-280 road through the Parc Natural Saja-Besaya and the highest pass, Puerto de Palomberi at 1,260m, to the pueblo (village) of Espinilla. Above about 800m for over 2 hours I was in the clouds: it was very cold and wet with only 50m visibility. Almost the entire route was on very quiet country roads with no shoulder or verge]
I left Camping Cabo Major at 10.00am in cold but clear conditions. I had waited until Vodafone Ireland started manning their phones at 9.00am their time, and managed to top-up my Irish SIM for another month, so the phone was good to go as well.
My next order of business was to further look into getting an oil change kit for the bike’s Rohloff internal hub gearbox, plus a spare tyre. I had tried, to no avail, at several small bike shops in town that I randomly came across upon arrival yesterday. This one today, PROBICI, was 16 km away from the campsite, but more-or-less in the right direction for heading south, which is where I wanted to go; I did get a suitable spare tyre from them but they had nothing to offer in the oil department, and were disturbingly unhelpful to boot. Disturbing, because this seems to be becoming the pattern for the calibre of Spanish bicycle shop employees.
It was already 11.30 by the time I’d finished at the bike shop, and so I got straight down to the serious business of riding into the mountains. I enjoyed a truly delightful ride on quiet minor roads as far as El Alto de San Cipriano at the 58km mark, where I stopped from 1.15 to 2.30. at a lovely Meson (Inn) for lunch and a charge-up. I was pleased to see that the German low-alcohol lemon-flavoured beer, Grölsch Rädler, has made it to Spain, and that they still understand me enough to make my favourite style of coffee, café marón (with condensed milk). The bocadillo with lomo (pork tenderloin roll) was also excellent.
But it turned out that I hadn’t charged up enough (barely 4 bars showing) at San Cipriano, and, at 4 km short of the top of the highest pass, Puerto de Palomberi – and still with 17 km to go to the next village where I could charge-up – I completely ran out of juice and had to push the bike uphill. All along there, there was less than 100m visibility. Only the sounds of tinkling bells alerted me to the cows roaming freely across the road (which was quite nice, really). Once I crested the pass though I was then easily able to cycle the remaining 13 km downhill into Espinilla. But boy, was I knackered when I got there!
I stayed for the night in Espinilla. The hard-working owner of the bar El Henar, Astrid, put me up in a delightful room for €25 and fed me a phenomenal amount (dinner plus breakfast with all the trimmings) for another €22. I think her invalid mum, sitting in her wheelchair in pride-of-place at the entrance, who really called the shots. Sharp as a tack, she was. Didn’t miss a trick. Crabby old thing, though.
Wednesday 2 October, 2019. Espinilla to Dueñas |195 km|
[Very cold initially, but it soon warmed up to the mid-20s. Mostly cycling on quiet country roads (P-220 and P-227) with a decent shoulder but no verge, and 30 km of loose-packed pebbly dirt alongside the Canal de Castilla. The route took in: Brañosera, Villavega de Aguilar, Aguilar de Campoo, Herrera de Isuega, the River Pisuega, Melgar de Fermental, Palencia, the Castilla Canal and Dueñas]
I couldn’t get away from El Henar guesthouse until 10.30. Nobody was awake before 10 to let me out, and then I couldn’t resist the breakfast of eggs, chips and chorizo with a glass of red!
I then straightaway had about another hour of stiff climbing to do. That surprised me – I thought I’d done with the hills!
The reservoir on the River Pisuerga at Aguilar de Campoo (pron: ‘Camp-oh-oh, not cam-pooh rhyming with shampoo!) is running on empty:
Ziggy let me down with navigation at one point near Brañosera when I couldn’t get back onto the main road again because of a locked gate, and I had to backtrack on a very rough and stony single-track for 4km.
After 110 km and 5 hours in the saddle, I took a late rest stop at the sizeable town of Melgar de Fernamental at 3 pm, having passed through numerous small villages on the way that didn’t have any form of commercial activity whatsoever – they were just collections of houses.
This was my first opportunity on this trip to sample the typical Spanish lunch ‘Menu del Día‘, where participating restaurants offer customers two or three choices of entrée (primer plato), main course (segundo plato) and dessert (postre), plus a drink (bebida) – wine and/or coffee and/or a gaseosa (soft drink and/or bottled water) – for an all-in price that is discounted by 30% to the price of the individual course total. It is generally eaten between 2pm and 4.30 and is usually the biggest meal of the day. More on Spanish Menu del Día is given on this link.
For €14, I had a potato and lentil stew followed by pork steak and chips and then dessert of lemon/cinnamon creamed rice (arroz con leche, a very typical dish), with bread, coffee, lemonade (brand ‘La Casera’, very common) and a bottle – full bottle – of Rosé wine (though I only drank a small glassful). There was no written menu and the waitress just rattled off all the options without me understanding them, so I can’t relate what else was on offer.
I just hate it when people post pictures of their meals – but here goes anyway (minus the coffee and the dessert):
After Melgar, my track was along the asphalt service road of the Autovia A-67 for 50 km to within a few km of Palencia. This was quite boring, and a head wind was picking up too, making the cycling even less exciting.
The last few km into Palencia was on a stony dirt track alongside a canal called the Canal of Castilla, and the 20km out of town was as well. After asking a few locals it emerged that Dueñas, 20km south of Palencia, had a Casa Rural (Country House) where I could spend the night. This was called Casa Pradera, and for €29 I had a big formal 2-course dinner (after the kitchen finally opened at 10pm), bed and light breakfast, plus 3 bottles of Estrella Galicia beer and a ½-litre of red wine. I got to watch the Barcelona-Inter Milan Champions League football match, together with a few sour and seedy-looking customers.
Thursday 3 October, 2019. Dueñas to Salamanca |161 km|
One of the battery charger leads had come off early-on during the night, or so I discovered at 7am, and so had to wait around until 9.45 before it too had a decent charge. I knew I had a big day still ahead of me.
I was initially intending to bypass Valladolid, but the gearbox oil issue kept preying on my mind so I decided to try again to find a decent bike shop and go right through the middle of this sizeable city of 400,000.
I did go into two bike shops – no luck: at least Samuel in the first one was knowledgeable, but at the second one they had no idea what I was talking about. [But after googling on the Electric Bike Report forum later, I came to the conclusion that the amount of oil in my gearbox is probably ok after all].
It was hillier than I’d thought it would be, and the strengthening breeze from the west (with me travelling SW), made me use up more energy than I’d counted on.
I stopped at a fancy restaurant in the city of Tordesillas called Restaurante Valerie where the Cochinillo Asado (oven-baked piglet) cost €25. At least I had a fully-charged battery by the time I finished it!
I was really battling the wind now, and thought I may have trouble making it to Salamanca. The countryside was getting more desolate as I went on too, not making for very encouraging riding.
With 20km still to go, I came across a cyclist going the other way. This was Jasper from Holland, and I helped him locate the camping ground he’d just overshot by 4km. Inspired by his intrepid cycling, and after stopping in at a bar for a cold lemonade, I got a bit of bounce and managed to continue on into Salamanca, arriving at the Plaza Major (Main Square) just after 7 pm.
My good friends, Andres and Sergio, put me up for 3 nights. We did the town together with some of their friends, revisiting many of the splendid tapas joints and restaurants I’d frequented when I used to live in Salamanca between 2008 and 2011.
-ends-
#71 Santander to Salamanca |488 km|
9.637 km travelled in Europe in 2019
14,600 km travelled on this bike