I don’t know where to start – I thought yesterday was good but today just blew me out of the water, every turn, every direction brought something new and outstanding – there’s no way words can do justice to what I’ve seen today so I will try to add a bit more in the description of the photographs. I had a great breakfast and leisurely start, after all I had a 600ft climb tand then downhill all the way to Oviedo (Except for the 600ft climb at the end ! I left the village and it was like Switzerland with cattle in green fields and towering snow clad mountains in the background – I even video’d it for Facebook. I reached Acebedo where there was one of those Town signs and an old round wooden hut and old stones in a field – touristy but still lovely. The gradient was great at 3-5% only rising briefly to 9% near the top, I just kept stopping and taking pics as it was beautiful- On the last bend there were turret holes in the rocks from the Civil war – I was at the top and I was actually disappointed as I was loving the climb ! At the top was the regional boundary between Castilla & Leon and Asturias and there was a strange little rusty sign to mark the boundary. The descent went on forever – had pretty much 300ft of descent before I had to pedal, it was all careful, VERY careful breaking around multiple hairpin bends with dubiously low walls and barriers all of which started after the bend ! and there was frost on the road as I was descending on the Northern and sheltered side. I stopped continuously, I was following the River Nalon – It’s source was at the top of the climb and it runs into the sea in Gijon, where I will complete my Iberia C2C tomorrow. There were death defying drops off the road, rocky snow topped mountains, green forests, you could see sediments pushed up at 30 degrees – A Geology lesson close up. I reached a tunnel on the Main Road but luckily the old road went round it, I say lucky because I was tempted to blast through the tunnel (coz cyclists don’t have to obey all the rules of the road) but it did look long and fast, so I went round and I saw something I had never seen before. I had been following the River Nalon since the top of the climb, but here it was disappearing into the mountain – straight through a big hole (a cave) into the abyss ! Half a mile later, just before I rejoined the main road there was a bridge over a river – I stopped and the river Nalon was exiting an even bigger cave and cascading over small rapids down the valley. I stopped and walked right up to the cave to have a closer look – again I was looking into the abyss. Next tunnel I did likewise and on the old road was some sort of nesting/feeding box and great views down the valley to the next town. I passed two dams and although I did try to stop at the first it was closed to access with some large spiked metal gates, there was a lot of debris (mainly fallen trees wedged against the dam at the end of the lake. The next lake and am I cycled straight past coz on the scale of the day it was trivial. I eventually reached Rioseco where there were traditional Asturian square wooden huts on stilts – they looked great (I took photos) then there was a sculpture of chain links and a viewpoint on the lake where I took more pictures. Eventually I reached the urban area which was like the Welsh valleys and hemmed in – 10 to 15 miles followed on decent cycle paths which shadowd the main road but, occasionally didn’t work. One brought me to a closed bridge with just enough gap to get the bike across – I was in a factory yard and the next bridge to get me across the train line was well and truly blocked by mineral tucks. I dodged round by going through the factory gates and doubling back up the road. I must have crossed the Nalon 20 times on loads of interesting bridges which would have beenmain crossings back in the day but now were Cycle/leisure tracks. Across one was a Mineral Tunnel and two old bogeys and a sign explaining a Disaster in the mineral mine. Just round the corner I passed what looked like a Coal mine Pit head but it wasn’t quite right and the coal trucks were really small. Next there was a massive pit head at the Soton Mine and shortly afterwards there was a tin mine museum … Is that what they were mining ! After 15 miles I turned out of the valley and what looked a little blip on my route was actually 700ft climb which took me up and over to Oviedo – 61 miles and a million photos !