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Anyone done it? Bit of a bucket list for me, going with Mrs Bloke on pillion end of June into July. Portsmouth - Santander ferry (2 night crossing), then 7 nights in an Airbnb just outside Potes.
Any must sees or favourite routes? We'll mostly just be doing loops out from Potes to explore the mountain roads and villages. We'll probably go up the cable car at Fuente De. We might go and have a look around Bilbao one day. I did fancy a visit to Santiago de Compostela but it seems a bit too far for a day trip.
Not on a motorbike, but we loved it!
Stayed in Colio above Potes. No facilities in the village, but it's amazing for a walk and a wonder how the oab_car managed to fit through the streets, not fall off a cliff, and only ground out once getting into the parking place..
Can you ride your bike on gravel? We saw a good few motorbike tours on some of the dirt roads.
Book the cable car - it gets very busy/booked up. Take a good long walk above.
Loved, loved the Cares Gorge - do the full day out and back from either end. Thank me later.
The walking was better than the hiking.
Poo is worth a visit, just for the selfie at the sign 😉
Cares Gorge:
https://flic.kr/p/2nyckUP
Above Fuente De, on the way to...
https://flic.kr/p/2nya1eJ
...Torre de los Horcados Rojos summit
https://flic.kr/p/2nycdXH
Deva thermal baths in the river - oddball and lovely.
https://maps.app.goo.gl/KXWfcj9enJBcCetq8
Most of the cycle routes were overgrown and the Spanish seem to like a fall line up and fall line down approach to routes and farm tracks. Hot work. And we got properly lost/off route in a thorn forest.
Best ride.
https://flic.kr/p/2ny9Zen
Not the best ride.
https://flic.kr/p/2nybgae
We did one day of 'rest' and drove down to Riano - odd modern town, but the road there over Mirador del Corzo was motorbike heaven and busy with them. Raino surroundings were superb. Worth lots of stops and side explores of the canyons.
https://flic.kr/p/2nybhL5
We then did Basque country for a week, and also had a great time.
https://www.flickr.com/gp/matt_outandabout/8mSG89uBVD
Thanks Matt, great pics and a few ideas to think about. I'm OK on gravel tracks on my own, but not with my other half on the back, so will probably stick to tarmac on this trip. We might well do a bit of walking whilst are there and I might consider hiring a mountain bike if Mrs BUTR has a pool day.
The biking is 'ok' in the Picos, but we weren't enamoured - there was much better biking in the Ondarroa / Deba / San Sebastian area, where @BasqueMTB is based.
Walking was utterly brilliant, I would happily go back.
Nah, s’rybbish. Wouldn’t bother!
Seriously though, I’ve been a couple of times and it’s ace. Grab a map, look at wiggly roads within 100km of Potes and you can’t go wrong.
If you go to Bilbao, then the Guggenheim is recommended, €14 entry fee is a bargain…. Steak at Amaren, excellent but not so much of a bargain! Grab some basque sidre, laugh as they comically pour half of it in the gutter/their shoes.
Potes is central to a lot of the m’biking. Any of the roads to Gijon, Cangas de Onis, Pannes, Reinosa etc. all great.
Watch teapotone on YouTube for some tour ideas, I think he calls it chickenstrip tours.
@Blazin-saddles superb pics, thanks 👍. I've seen some of the teapotone videos plus loads of others. The jury seems pretty unanimous that it's a motorbiking Mecca. Can't wait!
Perfect motorcycling… Panes to Cangas
De Onis is as good a stretch of tarmac as I’ve ever encountered. And the Pulpo a la Plancha is equally as good
I’ve done it with mates and it was ace. Roads are fab, food & drink is good and great value, people are friendly. I wouldn’t plan to stay in the same place for a week though. We used Booking.com app and just stopped every day around 2pm then searched for suitable accommodation nearby that had secure bike storage.
The N260 road that runs the length of the Pyrenees is amazing so don’t focus on just the Picos.
@Pauly thanks, if I was riding with mates I'd consider doing the same, but my wife has a finite tolerance for saddle time so I need to balance my desire to just ride with hers to chill and sightsee. We've already booked a place for the whole week and chose a place with a pool so we can have a day (or two) off the bike just relaxing. Not a hardcore biker strategy for sure, but works for us. It may be I go off to play whilst she is catching some rays by the pool!
If you do go to Cangas make sure you visit Covadonga, both the chapel and the lakes.
One thing: access to the lakes is limited, I'm not sure if you can just turn up and ride up. We visited later in the afternoon and the barriers were up, but at midday I think they make you park at the bottom and either walk up or take a bus. I'm not sure if this restriction applies to motorbikes. The chapel is at the bottom and has no such restriction, but it could get very busy.
Useful info ta, I'll check before we head there.
Got back last Wednesday. We had a great trip. We didn't get everywhere suggested, we sort of made it up as we went along at a fairly relaxed pace and did have a couple of days off the bike. Our Airbnb was superb, in a lovely mountain village about 20 minutes from Potes. Surrounded by gobsmacking mountain scenery, we were gently woken in the mornings by cowbells as the villagers led their small herd through the streets to be hand milked in a barn nearby!
We did quite a few of the roads I planned to ride, the Potes triangle (stopping at Riano for lunch - stunning), and several other loops from Potes. The roads were the best I have ever ridden. Immaculately surfaced, endless twisties, stunning views, devoid of traffic. We stopped frequently at viewpoints or roadside cafes to just chill and take it all in. We went up the cable car at Fuente De and had a good walk at the top, spotting golden eagles and Griffon vultures. We also did some local walking around our Airbnb.
A few pictures from my phone, excuse the poor quality. I did take about 4 hours of GoPro footage which I plan to distil into a twenty minute highlights video when I get round to it. Don't worry - for our own consumption. I wont inflict my crap home movies on you! I would happily recommend a trip there to anyone.
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I've hit the like button...
It is one of the places I'm already planning to return to. Usually I'm happy with a single visit - but I am keen for more Spanish mountains...
Been twice and loved it. It's definitely got its own character for motorbiking and different from the Alps. It's less super tight switchbacks and stunning mountain views as in Austria / Switzerland and more sweeping mountain roads. There were fewer motorbikes there than the Alps, which made it feel more like a genuine place people live than a holiday park for road afficionado.
which made it feel more like a genuine place people live than a holiday park for road afficionado.
It is very much a place where people live and work. The village we were in did have a few holiday places but there were loads of locals, mostly in very small farms or smallholdings. It was a very unmechanised and low intensity style of farming/market gardening. I guess a lot more environmentally sound than our more industrial agriculture. There seemed to be a communal grazing thing going on where the sheep or cows from several different farms would be brought together and walked to the grazing in the morning and returned in the evening. It seemed that different villagers took turns to do this. All hand milked too.
The profundity of bird and insect life was startling. The birdsong in the mornings was deafening! Loads of familiar species from home like swallows, swifts, sparrows etc. just many, many more of them. It was striking when we got back how comparatively, our corner of rural Shropshire is in reality quite denuded (like all of UK) of bio diversity 😞. We tend to think we have quite a lot of wildlife here, it's not until you go away that you realise how much we've lost. I'm old enough to remember huge flocks of starlings, sparrows, goldfinches etc. everywhere when I was kid. I just don't see this anymore.
The air was full of insects too - I'm guessing their low intensity agriculture uses a lot less insecticide. My bike and helmet visor got a right old bug splattering - something that just doesn't happen in UK any more. Soz for turning my holiday thread into an eco-rant!
We noticed that whilst there were a fair few Brit, French and German bikers - most other tourists were Spanish, the Picos is obviously a national park, and it it seem to be a big destination for people from elsewhere in Spain. Our Airbnb had 8 apartments, we were the only non Spanish visitors. Nowhere was busy and we often rode for over an hour without passing another vehicle.
It sounds like you had a good trip. One good thing you mentioned was at times riding and having some solitude, riding with the roads all to yourselves.
I loved that and definitely was a different experience from riding things like the Stelvio or Grossglocker which can turn into trains of motorbikes and performance cars screaming up and down the mountains.