Traveling the northwest of Spain this time of the year is not for the faint of heart. After 3 weeks of heavy storms and several local floods in Galicia, I decided to do a little vanlife meetup in the north of Spain. Sunny vibes were the trigger.
Far(t) away from home
To pick one of the travel destinations from last month, I was looking back in my travel diary. It was was a mess. Although the place where I was diving into it, was even more messy with diarrhea. I am not used to the amount of unhealthy Dutch food anymore. Luckily this place has a normal toilet and not my never used Porto Potti. Okay, all this shit reminded my about the shitty weather coming in at Galicia. Positive side? The sun wiped away the thunder and dark clouds from time to time. It's the same like eating bad food. If you travel this area during October-December, you know you are fucked.
The little town of Lastres
Time to communicate
I know, I might sound a bit bitter. It's was probably the lack of communication these weeks on the road. I hardly met anyone. And when I did, the language was on a different level. I was up for a long drive to meet up with another Dutch vanlifer and talk in our own language. Enjoying some beers. I took the main highway from Galicia (A8) and the warnings were not to be ignored. This highway was a real high way, crossing some mountain tops. The gusts of strong wind kept me sharp and focussed. After 7 hours I reached my destination: a chat with a stranger from a country that wasn't strange to me. He convinced me with good sunny weather and constantly walking around in shorts. The time I arrived was more the time to sit under a blanket with hot chocolate. It was fun to complain about those huge white campers and the special behavior of some. Seeing live examples of that behavior in front of us. Yes, we didn't get it. Why do some white fridges on wheels need to park it almost on top of your feet, when there is all the space around? The next day we were sunbathing and enjoying some snacks, and guess what? A huge camper comes, parks in front of our toes. We had to move our chairs, because we could not sit properly anymore. The newcomer had all the flat space on the field. Maybe they just like to cuddle? We could ask, they stayed inside and their satellite dish went up.
The view from the town of Lastres on Picos de Europa, around sunrise
Silence before the storm
In the morning I went up early, before sunrise. No hangover from the beers. The town of Lastres was cute and quiet. Steep alleys and a few good higher viewpoints. I watched the sunrise over the mountains and looked on the map: Picos de Europa. I heard some people talking about good hikes there. Maybe this is the next stop. The sunrise was a true beauty. Enjoy the moment...because it was abruptly disturbed. It was supposed to be a quiet day the rumors said. A national holiday where everyone was supposed to be off. Well, the guys with the loud leave blowers made this sleepy town awake at 07:30 AM. I had a coffee with my new Dutch friend and decided to continue my route to Picos de Europa. Several people warned me for stormy weather. I ignored the warnings and said "Stormy weather? I travelled the coast of Galicia the last few weeks! I am used to it".
Pictures I took from one of the viewpoints around Lastres
I searched on Google Maps what could be a nice first viewpoint and a place to sleep. Like always the route to get there was taking longer. I stopped several times for nice spots. I stopped on a wonderful beach and walked around on my bath slippers. My other shoes were too smelly and wet. While walking around I saw more spots I wanted to discover and started to climb some sharp rocks. Totally distracted by this exploration, I forgot that I was wearing bath slippers. Not the best footwear for this hike and climb route. I found roses laying around everywhere, because of the holy holiday. When I met a local fisherman he was laughing loud at me, pointing at my footwear. I know... I should go back, otherwise one of the roses in the ocean might be for me. Before entering my van, I saw an abandoned monastery and tried to get closer. A loud yelling started out from the bushes. It was a Spanish guy in his favorite soccer shirt, getting loco at me. I told the guy to chill and I left the place...he kept screaming in the distance. Another little example of silence before the storm. Although the next story is the one I am actually referring to.
One of the nice spots along the route: Playa de San Antolin
I got to the spot that was pointed as one of the main viewpoints along the road. Also tagged as a Park4Night spot. Perfect, some other vanlifers and even an enthusiast Dutch family willing to communicate. Traveling in their van with a 7 week old baby, respect. The view on the iconic Naranjo de Bulnes was blurred by the clouds. I started walking uphill to see if I could find a spot on the hill to have a better view. While walking I was chased by local dogs. I checked the weather forecast and radar to see if it was not getting worse. I discovered that the messages people sent me were warning for something more serious than the recent Galician storms: it was called 'Ciaran'. After a bit of trailrunning in the hills, I decided to run back. The rain was getting more intense. Just when I entered my van, the shit started...good timing. Intense rain and a very strong wind. I was standing on a flat parking spot between 2 mountains. I turned the van with the nose in the direction of the wind...still crazy. The strong gusts of wind started to make even me a bit nervous. I saw what the wind was doing outside and how the other 3 vans tried to handle the wind. I looked on the map and searched for the nearest town. Maybe there is a spot next to an apartment building to hide behind. I found one in Las Arenas. Is it more safe? Garbage containers, large branches, roadsigns...everything was flying around. Some people were even looking for their cat outside that was missing. I looked up to the apartment roof if there was anything that could easily get blown off and took the risk. Together with several other vans and campers we tried to survive this storm, with hurricane wind strength between 140 and 160 kilometer per hour. This was definitely a new experience with Vin Diesel (the nickname of my van). I am happy that I gave my van this name, he is strong and unbreakable.
As you can see, the view from the camp spot was a bit cloudy
Some of the views during my trailrun
It's all about timing
When I woke up (Yes, I even fell asleep during this noisy night), I went out for an early coffee and toilet...Ciaran didn't scare the shit out of me last night. Outside it was a mess, many things on the street that were blown around. Everyone was still in their camper(van). The wind seemed to be gone and it looked like the deck of clouds was not that thick. Let's go for another trailrun and see if I can have a good view of the Bulnes this time. This trailrun became some kind of obstacle run. Fallen and broken trees everywhere. Today I actually looked on Komoot (an app for hikes) to pick a certain route. After 45 minutes of climbing over and crawling under fallen trees, it was there. The sky cleared up for a while and wow, it was worth the effort and waiting for the right moment this morning. What a view and so quiet. I continued the Komoot-route and realized that I was not that far yet. Oh wait...I didn't check the length of this hike: 83 km 😂
The silence in between, so happy that I went up for a run in the early morning
Let me think...Not much food in the backpack, I have enough water, it seems there is a serious amount of rain coming, 83 km's...eh, let's turn back. Again, just after a sprint into my Mercedes Sprinter it started to poor down. Perfect timing. Plan the next stop: Mirador del Urreillu. I do check the roads on Google Maps these days in satellite mode, to prepare the route and parking of the van. There is a little road up to the mirador, but is seems a dead end and not easy to turn. Just park at the big parking lot and run up the steep road. Good decision and happy with the raincoat. Reached the viewpoint and as expected a cloudy view on the Bulnes. The only thing up here? Raincoats and goats...and some people that think they can reach every nice spot with their car and got stuck. I returned to the van, took some dry clothes and continued driving during another cloud-burst. Heater on, radio on and enjoy the ride. I pinned another stop earlier, just when I got there, it cleared up. An old Roman bridge after a muddy and slippery trail. All ideas and activities perfectly timed today. I really enjoyed this day where people hided inside for this huge storm. The other things along the river I wanted to see, forget about it. It was just a large swirling river of mud and tree trunks.
The Bulnes was hard to spot
The Roman bridge: Puente la Vidre
Sail with the wind to?
The ride convinued and I didn't use a lot of diesel. Vin Diesel had the wind slightly from behind and it felt like we were sailing to oir next destination. I ended the day on top of a hill in Bilbao with a view over the city. And for the first time in this six week road trip, I paid for a camp spot. Why? In Spain and Portugal there are a lot of burglaries and robberies in camper(vans), when you stay in the big cities. This was a bit more secure and out of the wind between the extreme sized campers worth at least half a million euro's. Let's see what tomorrow brings.
All my pictures were taken with a Samsung S23. For this blog I had to transfer them by my social media, the quality was reduced and might not the sharpest.