Retirement trip - Day 8

 Today I'd planned riding in the Picos de Europa mountains. These mountains have had a lot of publicity recently as a good place to ride a motorbike, and I would estimate that half of the bikes in Potes are British registered. 

I had downloaded a route that I had found on the Internet of an interesting ride, but realised it would entail eight hours on the road. So instead I started following the route and would deviate from it at some point.

First part of the ride was from Potes to the famous viewpoint on the way to the summit of Puerto de San Glorio.

Lots of bike groups (and others) have left their stickers on this board and along the barrier

I then rode up the the summit.

Saw a sign for a higher viewpoint 2km away so went for a look.

Continued to follow the sat nav route until I saw a sign for a side road leading to the Picos de Europa National Park, so headed that way. The road was a lot narrower and bumpier, and I stopped at a view point where a Welsh couple and their dog spoke to me. They were on an open ended holiday, not knowing where they would go next or when they would return home.

From there I carried on into the mountains.

Soon after I made the previous video the scenery got a lot better, so I started videoing again.

As it turned out, Cain is at the end of a dead end road so I had to ride back the way I had come and go the other way at the junction. I was starting to think about buying petrol so headed towards Riaño, a town in a beautiful location between lakes and mountains.

I headed on looking for more passes, but the weather started getting a lot colder and there were grey clouds overhead. Soon I had to stop and put my waterproofs on, and rode through very heavy rain. I decided to head back to Potes and the sat nav advised returning by the Puerto de San Glorio. Temperature got down to 10C (from about 25C) and I put my heated grips on. Who would have thought that I would have needed them during a summer trip to Spain?

Coming down from the Puerto, the weather cleared up and it got warmer again and my suit had dried by the time I got back to Potes.

It was a great day out on the bike, riding on great roads and seeing amazing scenery. Well, until it started pouring with rain! I'm leaving Potes tomorrow and heading on with my adventures.