From Asturias to Galicia

1st September

Some thoughts as I pack up in the morning, I have the advantage of getting the morning sun up here to dry everything off. I fell asleep quickly (after listening, with a couple of beers and cigarettes to Bruce Springsteen on my iPhone - one of those memorable listening events, like listening to Jane Silberry on my drive to Nottingham for a PhD supervision in the 1990s that I will remember) at 10.30 but awoke again at midnight with children running around and chattering and laughing, but quickly settling shortly after midnight. Then I was awoken again at 4.30 by loud festival music thankfully distant. Why it started at that time I have no idea: did the wind direction change? It was bizarre. Now at 8.30 I am up before the entire campsite, nearly packed and keen to get back on the road. I have felt an outsider here, a shadowing single figure on the outside of this site of families. Sometimes its right, when solitude doesn't feel conspicuous, as at the last site, with a range of different people there, but sometimes it does not feel comfortable and I wonder where all the serious minded interesting lone travellers have found to stay that I haven't.

Today I will ride up around the top corner of Galicia and not sure where I will aim for tonight. I even thought a hotel would make a change. I even thought this model of holiday may have had its day.

Later that day...

At Muros campsite. What can I say? I rode 215 miles today in increasingly hot weather. I stopped off for a very quick lunch looking over a beautiful little port but with choppy seas. But I had lost my keys somewhere (I found them in the bike) and was anxious about the steep climb up back to the main road and sure enough there were obstructions but I ploughed on up not wanting to stop as hill starts are a performance on such a heavily laden bike. (how strange, I am convinced this happened the day before...) The journey was enjoyable though the GPS kept getting lost adding to the overall sense of confusion about where I was and what direction I was heading in. And there were tolls. I followed a car through the lane that seemed to let people through automatically but not me, so had to push Bertha back from the barrier and break into a heavy sweat paddling her 250+ kilos and try another. By this time the temperature was showing 33 degrees. Now I have finally understood the weird thing happening with campsites. I had loaded a while back at home a Europe full of duff specialist-Dutch motorhome campsite, the entire repertoir of ASCI campsites. Many are very close to the much nicer Alan Rogers sites but when searching for the right address on the GPS I've got confused. So luckily I worked that out before I turned left to what looked like the huge and ghastly beach front site and kept on the road another few miles to the sharp uphill right (that I stopped on because of poor slow speed style) that led to this lovely campsite – where there is a field at the bottom for free form camping, shared only so far with a Portuguese couple and a sweet female cycling duo who are riding from Santiago de Compostella to Lisboa (they said). They are friendly, slightly mad, speak some English and share an incredibly narrow tent. You can just see it in the picture behind mine.

I have often thought about this campsite (I'm updating this in 2020- year of Covid-19 when no one is going anywhere) as my favourite campsite. I certainly enjoyed the off the main track feel of the large field where an interesting variety of travellers on cycles, a motorcycle and one or two cars, are staying. and the place was a short walk down to the road round the coast and onto the beautiful beach. I went there in the hot afternoon and then much later at night when there was just light left in the sky.

They must be good friends. Now someone else is walking over the space looking for somewhere to park. Also sounding Portugese(I think it is the local Spanish dialect) though driving a Spanish car. Ah they are coming next to me… I have the feeling I may stay here till the site closes on 9th September, or at least 4 or 5 nights. I am rather exhausted by all this rather lost riding. There is meant to be a 'supermarket' here on site, and a restaurant (I'm having coffee there now with breakfast croissant). This is a different climate down here, much hotter and there are flies and cicada after dark. The climate near the north coast was beautiful - but this is beautiful too.

The night was so warm, the warmest yet, and the morning also bright. I think there is enough to do to stay for a while. I've stopped reading Seven Pillars of Wisdom and taken up Being and Time instead. I was growing tired of the constant theme of cruelty in Lawrence's writing.