So it has now been raining for 4 days and the forecast is more with likely snow ! With this in mind I can not take a chance trying to cycle through the high ground of the Picos de Europa and I have radically re-routed to go round the coast ... But first I have to get there, so today I headed North to visit a city that I've wanted to for a long time .... Lugo.
So there wern't many route options and I pretty much followed the Minho River north to Lugo, although I didn't actua;;y see it at all until Lugo.
As I set off my Garmin said the first climb was starting and it was 2000ft to the top ! It was also raining again and the further I climbed the colder the rain became, I was glad to reach the lovely town of Chamada where I stopped for a warming coffee with a small slice of Tortilla - as I left town heading north the ring road converged with the road to Lugo and a really awkward junction nearly saw me heading onto the No Bikes allowed ByPass - I did eventually find my road and pushed on now through the drizzle, which was cold due to being 2500ft up. But the sun did come out as I approached Taboada my planned lunch stop.
Unfortunately the only option in the cafe seemed to be Tortilla, so a second helping ensued.
Now today was a bit crazy - I only cycled 60 miles but there was 6600ft of climbing - thats 110ft every mile, there wasn't a flat piece of road all day.
The coutryside was a bit strange, at one stage it looked remarkably like Northumberland but overall the landscape lacked human intervention, there were farmhouses but there wer no cattle in the fields, there were no crops either, in fact the fields appeared mostly to be long grass.
With about 10 miles to go I was nice and dry and turned off onto a small road into town however the rain decided to make another appearance and as I arrived into my hotel everything was soaked again and needed drying.