Picos & Northern Spain. 3rd time lucky.

[Godspeed]

Nice one . I’ve only been to the Picos once and would love to go back. That area between Reinosa and Guardo is truly superb for a fast, sweeping ride.

Ok, I’d better not go that way then

[Flintlock]

Lol - nothing wrong with being in no rush. Thanks for the comments lads. Anyway-

Saturday 1st October.

So , over breakfast whilst being watched very closely by a Spanish version of Basil Fawlty ( we got told off for being 3 minutes early for breakfast lol), we decided we would explore North West of Potes. The weather forecast gave it warm & sunny for the rest of the week.

We headed north along the N 621 - nice and twisty as it makes it way through a gorge. Not too much traffic this time of year - but I would imagine it would be very busy in the summer months.

At Panes we take the AS 114 west towards Las Arenas and stop for a coffee at Ruta as 114

[Flintlock]

Ruta AS114 makes it very obvious it is a bikers cafe as you approach, with its motorbike related furniture outside the cafe.

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The owner was a great character. He could not speak English, we could not speak Spanish but we managed to have a good laugh & we hopefully enlightened him about the NW 200 & the Ulster GP

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He was a very good artist- he had drawn the picture on the wall behind him - a tribute to moto GP riders from memory.

As if our coffees were not cheap enough - he gave us discount on our bill on leaving

[Flintlock]

Whilst having our coffee we booked the nights accommodation in Cangas de Onis - further along the AS 114.

We made our way to our hotel and some of the party left their bike luggage at the hotel. We then headed off up the CO-2, a single track road just east of Cangas de Onis.

We ended up on unsurfaced - which progressively got worse as we made our way along - Allan & me (well me mainly) decided to do an about whilst we could & arranged to meet the others later. The bit we did do was nice tho

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[Flintlock]

We headed back down to the AS 114 and pulled into a restaurant for a spot of lunch

Goat kid stew was on the menu so it had to be sampled

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Delicious

We were soon joined by the rest of the party - the un surfaced apparently looped back down and joined the AS 114 further along.

[Flintlock]

After lunch, it was back on the bikes and we took the N625 south from Cangas de Onis.

A stop for cold drinks and ice cream at a cafe at Cascada del Aguasaliu. Lovely spot for a break.

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[Flintlock]

Back on the bikes and a short distance further down the road and we took a sharp right onto an un- named single track road which lead us to El Stelvio de Casielles - a series of 21 hairpins with a very sharp ascent/descent, a challenge on the fully loaded GSA

It was worth it tho - a lovely small derelict church and Graveyard at the top & great all round views

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[Flintlock]

Some more pictures from this area

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And the road on the way back down

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[Flintlock]

We rejoined the N625 and headed back towards Cangas de Onis.
Not far up the road and Jonny brings his 650 V strom to a halt at the side of the road. There is a noticeable play with the rear wheel.

We slowly make our way back to Cangas de Onis. As luck would have it there was a motorbike garage there - Motas Juan S.A

The Suzuki was left in. As we suspected it needed new wheel bearings. With it being late Saturday afternoon we did not expect it to be ready again for the road until Monday afternoon at the earliest. However the owner said he reckoned it would be ready the next morning!

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So it was back to the hotel and a dander round the town for a spot of sight seeing

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One of the group aptly named this the Hardley Davidstone

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[Flintlock]

So, another great day - slightly cut short due to circumstances beyond our control.

After a few drinks & food it was back to our hotel & fingers crossed the Suzuki would be ready sometime tomorrow