Northern Spain Motorcycle Touring - Roadblocks Can't Stop Us!

Well we have survived the night and we woke up. It's rather cold this morning. I think it was minus two in the night. Em just put some water in the pan and it started to freeze. And the shadow's a little bit cold as well. Nothing the heated seat won't fix in a few hours but first we're going to have some porridge, tea, coffee, maybe add on 10 extra layers. Yeah I didn't quite expect to get this card last night. I think they said it was only going to go to like maybe five or something but not minus two. But the sleeping bags did well. I think there was a bit of a draft because my back was cold but Em was nice and toasty. Yeah I was kind of yeah I was like squished between the embankment and you and I think I didn't get any breeze coming through at all and I think you're on the side where the wind was hitting the tent. Yeah. But I wasn't cold at all last night other than like the top of my head which I now see why people make themselves in a little cocoon. Yeah or have like a hat on or a beanie. Oh yeah yeah that might have been a good idea but yeah as you say wasn't expecting to be quite cold. But look at the view again we woke up to. Same as the one we went to sleep to but it's still beautiful. Oh we're just packing up here the sun is starting to come out. We have picked the shadiest spot on the campsite but I think in a minute the sun will be on us and it'll be warm again. It is amazing how much stuff you can actually fit in one bike. Okay and we're off it's nice actually getting nice and warm now it's only five degrees but after last night that feels really warm. It actually does. To say goodbye to this lake now hopefully there'll be some more around the corner. Some scenic boat trips they're doing there too that'll be nice. Yeah that would be really nice. It seems like a destination for the Spanish too that we've seen a lot of Spanish campers, Spanish motorcycler. But this lake is just epic. It is isn't it? I absolutely love it. All right bye lake let's hit some twisty mountainous alpine roads. Let's put this GS to the test. Yeah we've got 32 kilometers to the next turning and it's looking promising. What is the plan for the day Sean? Well you put our destination in so I'm not entirely sure where it is we're going. But I believe there's some more national parks we'll be riding from. Yeah I think we have to pass through a place called Leon first to get to the next national park. And I think that's our first destination. There's some kind of red toned rocks as well that we're going to see today. Similar to those in Bulgaria I think. Yes yeah. So have you put the final destination in for today or just one of the waypoints? No I put the first stop in so I think we'll be doing about 600 kilometers of riding today. Yeah it's really nice roads. This type of road they're fast but they're not motorway speeds. Yeah the speed limit on the b-roads here is 90 kilometers ish let's say. So yeah you make quite good progress here. We've got two hours and 24 minutes till our first stopping point. Is that where we plan to get lunch or something? Yeah let's grab some lunch there. Yeah let's grab some lunch there. Maybe grab a coffee too. Okay yep that sounds good. The river area now is more a little bit rural built-up area. Not much going on around here. Very sleepy little towns. But we're what 30 minutes 40 minutes from Leon? Yeah so I just checked on my phone through happy cow that there's quite a few restaurants there. I think we can grab some some lunch and some coffee in Leon and then we can make our way to the next national park. That sounds good. I think I'll refuel as well so we're good for the rest of the day. The fuel's lasting a lot longer on these b-roads. On the motorways when you're fully laden and doing like I don't know 150km consistently the fuel just disappears so much faster than when you're just cruising around about 100km. It lasts a really long time 100km but fully loaded on the motorway with the wind resistance the mpg goes right up. But these b-roads are still really fast 90 miles an hour like on a straight road. Yeah that's true yeah. 90 kilometers an hour sorry. Yeah this is getting cheaper as well I think it's one euro 40 a litre. It seems the further south we go. So we just stopped to pick up fuel and right outside the fuel station was an Aldi so I've come in here to grab some fresh fruit and vegetables because it got kind of depleted last night from camping so I'm cooking up some tomatoes and bell peppers just stuff that we can quickly put on the campfire. But we're going to actually go into Lyon now and have some lunch and then this will be for dinner and for tomorrow. So yeah let's see what Aldi Spain has for us. We have absolutely hit jackpot in this Aldi. I've got tofu and these burger style things as well as these I've never seen before these are the wonder burgers but like a chicken burger. So I got some of those I've got some fresh french I just need to find a sauce for the pasta and maybe some gluten-free bread for me but yeah I'm so excited for this next national park. I've heard it's even better than the one we've been in so this is going to be exciting. All right stock food acquired now to find Sean. I can see him he's watching shadow in the distance. Oh it's so warm after last night I'll take anything over 10 degrees. I think I might have bought too much though I think we've got about 500 grams of protein in this bag but it's going to be worth it tonight. It's just really difficult to find like high protein dishes in restaurants for us with me being gluten free and us both being plant-based but yeah let's go check in on Sean. Oh the bike looks awesome it's washed up really well show you there he is. So we found a place on Habitat called The Union it's a vegetarian place that does a lot of plant-based vegan food as well and it looks awesome we've ordered from a set menu it was 18.50 for a starter and a main and a drink and yeah how awesome does it look. It's really busy in Lyon today didn't realize it's a national holiday so we won't be going into the city centre today because it's absolutely bedlam. It's packed yeah so we're gonna eat this and then jump straight back on the bike. Yeah I think we've got another two and a half hours to our final destination. So the sauce is soya and we have some grated beetroot it tastes just like a bernese that you'd get like in a french restaurant it's really tasty and this is like a pizza style bread. All right our second course has just arrived and it looks great. It's sizzling away and I got the gnocchi with tofu look at that it's sizzling this looks incredible the vibe and aesthetic of this little restaurant here has probably not changed for 50 plus years and it's so cool in here I feel like I've stepped back in time and even the chef and everybody here just seems really authentic and it's been a really nice experience I'm so glad we found this place but look at this look at that I think it's got some maple syrup on top with some pecans it's very sweet very sweet apple but we're gonna eat this now and probably grab a coffee I think do you want a coffee Sean? Yeah I think it's best so keep me going for the next few hours the soil is getting like really red sandy looks very similar to Australia and we're supposed to be at these these rock formations soon we did see a little bit of them just before but nobody know where they're going to be some lovely twists on this road nice on their nice road surface too no holes in this one okay we're hanging the left soon oh exciting well I think I can just about see them at um nine o'clock turn in here sorry this this gse is so slippy is this like the the main way in it's a really nice old house though we've uh just pulled off the motorway to head to these well they're quite famous aren't they these red rocks I think so yeah and this is the uh the main road to them full of these old houses they're barely standing yeah oh I'm gonna have to take off this outer layer soon add this down jacket and merino wool jumper I've got on oh look that looks like a more main route to it doesn't it well it does doesn't it yeah and here they are you can just about see them at 12 o'clock whoa that's popular popular little uh hiking spot yeah there they are it's a parking spot here should we park up here uh yeah I guess so hello have you put a specific point in the map I put these rocks in my dear okay should we maybe have a look have a think here yeah because he says yeah you can't even drive up there so maybe there's more all right my thermal layer is off for the first time during this trip it's 25 degrees and I couldn't be more happy about it but just over here we have the red rock formations that we drove in to see and this is the information board so apparently that you can do a round tour of the red rocks and it takes around 3 hours and 30 minutes and it is what does it say here uh duration 3 hours 30 minutes length 10.7 kilometers if we had the time we probably would do it but um we're not gonna have time today and we're in full bike gear and it's getting hot so we're not gonna do it Sean's gonna fly the drone up so we can see them from an aerial perspective because I think on the hike you get to more of a higher elevation so you can see more of them so enjoy this drone footage of the rock formations here in northern Spain so oh look at the roof on this one that's quite sad isn't it oh that's really sad it's such a shame all these old buildings just abandoned really is the new ones don't quite look the same what road is this that we're on I'm not sure it says Carretera Orense Conferrada which is probably not going to help anybody I think it's the n576 it has oh yeah that didn't sound as romantic as the uh no you did a better job whoa look at this roads are getting quite slippy here there's lots of like loose gravel been scattered on top of the road and not not really pressed in so makes for quite some sketchy corners so certainly keep an eye out for that yeah it's quite heavy it's really bad here it's even more dangerous when you've got like perfect tarmac and it just turns to this because you yeah oh here we go again you don't expect it here it is it's like when they redress the road but they don't run the steamroller on top and the gravel just sits on top oh I can smell smoke look I can smell smoke can you look at the tree trunks they've all been scorched like charcoal oh wow well there must have been a huge fire through here I think this place must have had a really really bad forest fire not that long ago all the trees up until about halfway up have been burnt and you can still smell burning in the air it's like an abandoned village we've just pulled into this abandoned village it's all like boarded up but oh that looks a lovely place oh it was oh wow maybe we should camp here that's really sad I bet that was beautiful at one point yeah I said road conditions getting increasingly worse here oh we've got an accident halfway is that was he turning are they turning around they're the ones that overtook us too long ago let's see what's happening I know no just everyone's okay just oh no there's a fire there is a fire is there there's currently a fire maybe that we can go forward a bit let's see what the situation is maybe we can pass but the cars can't okay okay okay English yes sorry okay we go then yeah we go we go look we go look maybe we come I didn't get to catch much of that but I think there's something blocking the road that maybe so we'll see yeah something like that wasn't it yeah I think she said like take it easy take it easy I'm not really sure entirely but oh oh wow it's very on fire it's actually on fire oh wow it looks like it is actually on fire isn't it on fire yeah I think it's not accessible for right so really slow and steady here well look at the soot on the floor okay so we just had another couple of local stoppers we think there's been an accident of some kind on this road and cars can't pass through it um he said something about taking our back boxes off uh to get through but we have no idea what we're about to to turn into oh there it is it looks like it's a coach crash oh uh I don't think he should have come down here no we might be able to squeeze around the front yeah maybe oh my gosh that's a hell of a hairpin I don't believe he actually tried it yeah has he got many passengers on it maybe hopefully not yeah you can't get around with the bags on there's no way let's see I'll take the bags off then I think yeah all right all right there's room for a skinny one but so I have to take them off for now try and squeeze away through I think it shouldn't be too too bad we maybe we have to take off the uh the tour tech waterproof keep them off for scratches it's not so bad all right is he gonna get through easy easy and we're through all right I can't believe this bus even tried to take this corner that's crazy grab our bags and get on our way but this is the beautiful gorge that we all worth it for this though wow that's a nice location I'll be gutted if we had to turn around I feel bad for him that's that's not a nice position to be in no we're heading up this right thanks let's hope there's not more drama this way I think he's going to be there for a very long time that might be a permanent feature that he might be able to do a little tour of that bus in years to come I don't know how they're going to get that out he's going to be dragged up I think I mean he did well getting that I just push him off the edge but this is a location you have to you have to do when you're in the north of Spain these roads this gorge this whole area it's so lush and green and it's only the start of the season I'm sure that when the flowers come out as well these roads are going to you won't have a bus blocking your way yeah take the motorcycle not the bus it's safer finally some fresh air lovely to ride through the forest I can smell like the wild garlic there's a waterfalls and things keeping the temperature down really nice and refreshing from that heat and no gravel on the road as well yeah road conditions are almost perfect nobody's trying to get us to slide off he's always appreciated a cute little village to the left as well this is the is this the n120 still perhaps yeah the n120 we're on now we're heading back actually kind of north a little because it's kind of a round circle that you can do up to that bridge and then back onto the the main road which will take you if you continued on it all the way to the coast but we're going to continue on it for about maybe another hour and then we'll drop south and be heading in the direction of portugal from that point on but we're just doing a little circle around this gorge at the moment enjoying enjoying the roads that's not very convenient place to break down no not at all oh are they doing some rock climbing that's a great place to do some rock climbing isn't this a bit dangerous of all the rocks here there's loads of rock don't climb next to the road oh i can see um lights up ahead there's someone going slow okay so we have a plan we're gonna head south for about another hour i'm guessing how many kilometers do you reckon sean uh not sure really but uh maybe 80 kilometers something like that 80 kilometers south towards the spanish portuguese border and hopefully stay somewhere on the tip of the national park tonight the sun is slowly setting we probably have a couple more hours left of daylight but we're just riding nicely on one of these roads next to the next to the river right we've come towards the end of our day today it's been a great riding day today we woke up very cold this morning on the campsite but it got gradually hotter highs of 22 degrees at one point which is nice finally got off the outer layer so we've got our summer riding gear on today so it's nice to feel the breeze going through us we found this hotel towards the end of the day we've just booked it now it's about 50 euros it looks great and it's situated just outside the national park of panida guerreras which we're heading to tomorrow that's going to take us nicely into portugal and it looks like there's gonna be some fantastic roads and a lot of interesting scenery to see along the way so we're just waiting for the guy to come and let us in because it's one of those hotels where you have to call them up and they come and get you so i think we've got another five or ten minutes and we'll take our bags in and we'll get saddled in for the night so join us in the next episode as we ride the next national park