April 24, 2014

Well, it would be hard to imagine a more miserable day then the one that greeted us today when we pulled back the curtains.  A black sky, rain splattering on the window and a gusty wind.  We couldn’t work out exactly which direction the wind was coming from being in the middle of lots of tall buildings.  Still, we’re keen to get going.

Getting out of Burgos is the usual battle with buses and lorries for a space on the road, negotiating multiple lane carriageways, huge roundabouts and traffic lights, and heaving a sigh of relief once we emerge out of the city.  The rain has eased up into a fine drizzle and the wind turns out to be mostly in our favour.  Some of the time it is a cross-wind, but as the road bends and turns it becomes a tail-wind and we fly along.  We cycle along a road with limestone cliffs towering each side of the road before emerging onto open moorland.  There are wind turbines on the horizon in every direction, clearly windy days are not unusual. 

As we make a turn onto the side-road that will be the main part of our route for the day there is a board advising us that the mountain pass is open.  So….no snow, but presumably a bit of a climb to come.  We can see the snow-capped mountains in the distance, the Cantabrian mountains. This range of mountains will be our final obstacle in Spain before dropping down to the coast and catching the ferry to Plymouth.

The route turns out to be one of those very gradual climbs that you hardly notice, although we realise that we are pretty high as there are snow markers all alongside the road.  A few spots of rain keep falling but nothing much and the wind continues to be our friend.  Pretty quickly we climb over the pass, giving us a spectacular view over the valley, before we drop right down again to the level of the river cutting its way through the mountains.  The sun has decided to shine now through the clouds warming us up nicely – all-in-all the weather has been kind to us today despite the unpromising start to the day.  With the wind continuing to blow us along we make quick progress and arrive in Villarcayo early enough to make a circuit or two of the town in order to select our accommodation.  It turns out to be a bigger place than we thought and we have several options for places to stay as well as a good selection of places to eat.  Let’s hope that the last full day of cycling in Spain tomorrow will go as well as it has today.