Day 25 Ruta Vía de la Plata - Gijón

So I’ve made it to Gijón and after 25 days cycling and more than 4 weeks in Spain emotions are just a little mixed. It's been amazing, the cycling, challenging at times, has been much better than anticipated, but it's great to get here and I'm now looking forward to getting home and putting on clothes that are different and clean.

Gijón is on the coast and, as far north as you can go, is a good place to end the trip. It's an interesting city whose hinterland of heavy industry, much of which has seen better days, contrasts with a huge and stunning sandy beach. It's where holidaymakers from Madrid head to in August to enjoy the food and escape the heat of central Spain.

Day 24 Off-road on the Ruta Vía de la Plata - to Oviedo

The Ruta Via de la Plata provides amazing examples of Spain's most important architectural styles. The unique contribution the Asturias makes, Oviedo especially, is the pre-Romanesque, buildings that pre-date the Romanesque style of architecture. It was able to do this because it was never captured by the Muslims who stayed to the south of the Cantabrian mountains. The independent Christian kingdom thrived, particularly when the remains of St James were discovered in 813, and there was enough money to build substantial churches. Oviedo was the capital of this kingdom.

Day 23 Ruta Vía de la Plata - Pola de Lena

If I’m honest the stretch of off road cycling from Leon to Pola de Lena, where the Ruta Vía de la Plata crosses a big pass and descends down into Asturias, had me worried. I did the road route last year and that was wonderful, an easy steady climb up to the pass and then an exhilarating 1000m descent sweeping round hair pin bends. I was nervous about that 1000m descent off-road.

Before coming out here I asked the Ruta Vía de la Plata Association if it was safe and they said yes it was because the path is wide. After some tricky cycling in the Camino Sanabrés my confidence had declined so I started checking again and found a review that said the route was difficult and shouldn't be attempted unless on a mountain bike with double suspension. I decided not to do it - getting home in one piece is the most important thing. It still nagged though, particularly as there would be big gap in my knowledge about the route for the guide.  I then found another review which confirmed what the Ruta Vía de la Plata Association has told me, that it wasn't difficult. I was stuck in the headlights so I decided to defer my decision to the last possible minute.

Day 22 Ruta Vía de la Plata - Leon

If I was forced to choose between all of the Ruta Via de la Plata's wonderful towns and cities, one place I'd like to return to time after time, than it would be Leon.

Day 21 - Ruta Vía de la Plata - Benavente

Arriving early at the lovely Parador at Benavente is a treat. Bite to eat after the cycle ride, proper siesta in a room with a lovely balcony and great views, I have nothing to complain about.

Although today's cycle ride was a little short, it was interesting with a lot to think about in terms of the guide.

Day 20 - Camino Sanabrés back in Tábara

It's one thing to arrive late and knackered in tiny place, when all you want to do is have a beer and a shower, and it's another thing to arrive early.  What was I thinking. Today was much too short and I was in Tábara by 2.

Day 19 Camino Sanabrés - Mombuey

Today I've spent a lot of time on the N525. 'N’ roads historically were the national highways before the relatively recent construction of the Spanish motorway network. There are a bit like 'A’ roads in the UK.

Day 18 Camino Sanabrés - back in A Gudiña

I'm back in A Gudiña. I'm in the sa

me hotel, and maybe the same room, as the one I was in 5 days ago. It's a tiny bit weird, and particularly during the first part of today's trip it felt like I was being rewound and going back in time. Part of it was on the same route but I was heading in opposite direction, so I kept seeing familiar sites but from a different perspective.

Day 17 Camino Sanabrés - back to Ourense

Hannah, my daughter and a mum to be, asked me the other day if I'm now a mountain biker. She’s a road cyclist, has been faithfully reading my blogs, and I think was worried that I'd gone over to the dark side. Well I haven't. I'm too old to be hauling my bike up steep mountain sides and not talented or brave enough to come flying down them. Cruising along flat grassy or gravely paths, through the middle of the countryside, now that's a different matter. I’m not sure what that is, mountain biking for softies perhaps, but there's been lots of it on this trip, and yes that's my stuff.

Day 16 Camino Sanabrés to Santiago del Compostela

I'm in Santiago del Compostela after cycling the final 53 km. The route was fine, it didn't rain until I arrived in the City, but it felt like a long way. I guess I'm just knackered.  I've been cycling without a break for 11 days and the recent tough going (1500m of climb today, mostly off-road) and bad weather is draining.

The woman at the hotel near Lalín was still in bed this morning when I got up for breakfast and her husband was there to do the honours. After dealing with a huge party at lunchtime yesterday, which didn't leave until 5, she then fed me at 8-30 (fish, very nice) and another huge party, all men, which sat down to eat at 9-30. I guess she needed a lie in before the Saturday rush. Anyway dinner, bed and breakfast came to 25 euros a real bargain.

Day 15 Camino Sanabrés off-road to Lalin

Today was a big adventure, I'm not quite sure whether it was a great day or a nightmare, but it was a big adventure.

Firstly a bit of context. When your travelling off-road in Spain without a guide you have no real idea what's around the corner. I have a route which is displayed on a map. The route was the best one I could find and the maps are the official Spanish ones. It's almost impossible to explain to an English person, brought up on Ordnance Survey maps, how bad the Spanish maps are. We are used to a path on a map being a path, a track being a track and a road being a road. These things don't apply in Spain where the maps are ancient. On the detailed maps motorways are not always there. So what looks like a track may turn out to have disappeared, be impassable or it may have acquired a lovely tarmacked surface. Particularly difficult to predict is when a track has become a “camino agricola” and has been given a nice gravel surface.

Unless you have a guide, cycling off-road in Spain is a bit of a gamble, particularly in the mountainous parts. Today I was ahead with my winnings, then I lost them all and was seriously behind and then, with one last desperate bet, ended up evens.

I had decided to split the 100km to Santiago de Compostela and stay somewhere cheap near a place called Lalin. Only 55km, so a nice leisurely start, no need to rush. Given the time I had, I was determined to stick to the off road version.

Day 14 Camino Sanabrés - off road to Ourense

I’m in Ourense, in a very nice hotel, with all my washing done and things drying nicely. After two days on wet, muddy paths everything is starting to get unpleasant. I've got a family suite so the bike has its own room, I'm tempted to put it in the shower.

Yesterday was grim but despite dreadful weather today, I've managed to get the miles in and feel good.

My decision not to cycle onto Laza last night was definitely right. It was a tough first two hours today with a long descent along a badly surfaced road. It was not the trip to contemplate if your knackered.

Day 13 Camino Sanabrés off-road to A Gudiña

Today was not good.

I had hoped to get to Laza which is about 90 km from Puebla Sanabria but only managed 55 km and ended up in A Gudiña. Things didn't go well.

So what went wrong?

Day 12 Camino del Sanabrés - off road to Puebla Sanabria

My perfect day in Spain now has a number of well defined ingredients. Start cycling around 9, or slightly before. Have a coffee con leche at about 10-30 and another at 12, ideally with a bite to eat, and then finish cycling around 3. This gives me time to check-in, have a shower, and then have lunch. I then do my washing and slob around. At about 6, I go out for some sightseeing, say two hours max, then find a bar, ideally with craft beer, eat some tapas and write this blog. All being well I'm back in bed by 10 getting ready to do it all again next day.

Day 11 Camino Sanabrés - off road to Tábara

In terms of the overall trip, the big news is that I'm no longer heading north on the Ruta Vía de la Plata, I’ve left that route and I'm on the way to Santiago del Compostela along the Camino Sanabrés. The plan for the guide is to provide two options, the first one based on the Ruta Vía de la Plata Association's route going north to Gijon and the second providing a pilgrim’s route heading northwest to Santiago del Compostela. As with the Ruta Vía de la Plata I want an off-road and a road version so I'm heading up on the off-road Camino and coming back along the N525. There's a new motorway so I'm hoping it will be as empty as the N630. It's about a 700 km round trip and after traveling 40 km north of Zamora to Granja de Moreruela I went 27 km along the Camino Sanabrés to Tãbara. So far so good.

Day 10 Ruta Vía de la Plata - off road to Zamora

There are all sorts of people heading to Santiago and I'm hoping most of them are not religious.  My attitude to the Catholic church is in the late Christopher Hitchens school and I have little or no empathy with a proper pilgrim.

Day 9 Ruta Vía de la Plata - off road to Salamanca

On paper today's route looked great.  It was quite long, 80km, but there were lots of places to stop. Apart from a climb in the middle, it looked fast and flat and there was even a good slug of road mixed in to keep things ticking along. The only question mark was that climb in the middle.

Well the question was answered.  The climb, about 200m on a badly broken track, was hard and the descent was worse. I was able to peddle nearly all the way to top, and I suspect someone a little younger would have done it easily, but it was the descent that got me. I had done the worst bit, the track was levelling out, when suddenly right in front of me was a bike trap. A gulley, impossible to see until the last nano second, dissected the track. Bang and I was flying through the air leaving the bike in the hole. Fortunately the rocky track had turned grassy but the ground was still hard and with all the wind knocked out of me I couldn't even curse.

Day 8 Ruta Vía de la Plata - off road to Béjar

I'm in my hotel in Béjar and totally wacked. I'm supposed to be going to the tourist office for a town tour briefing, but apologies to the Ruta Vía de Plata Association, I'm going to give it a miss.

Day 7 Ruta Vía de la Plata - off road to Plasencia

So last night, in Grimaldi,  the man who owns the hotel asked me which way I was going today. I showed him the route and he tells me my route is out of date and there is now a better one.  His route, which is the latest version, was not only better, it was shorter than the one I had. Today has been a doddle.

Basically the route was in two halves. Off road to Galisteo than road to Plasencia via Carcaboso.

Plasencia is actually 10km off the pilgrims route but is such a lovely town it's not to be missed.