Portugal & Spain 2008

Friday - The great discovery

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Friday 20th June

Today, we're going to have an easy day, starting with a gentle ride up to the Fuente De cable car which is 15 miles away in the mountains, then maybe a short ride out in the afternoon, if we feel like it. But first it was breakfast, and that was rather an odd affair. It was served in the dining room, but instead of a buffet as you might normally expect it was all waiter service, and there wasn't much choice. First coffee was served, then slices of toast with oil dribbled on, then a thick pancake was offered, and lastly, cake. Hmmm, strange, doesn't look like breakfast is going to be highlight of the day here :-(

10:05 John and Dave, two bikers happy not to be carrying luggage with them for the next three days.

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Here's the route to Funto de cable car from our hotel, it's only 15 miles...

10:54 After a nice ride through the woods we arrived at Fuente De, we parked the bikes next to the cable car station and stowed as much stuff in the RT panniers as we could, just as we were doing that, two Spanish bike cops rode in to the car park, they rode around, then rode out again, it must be my guilty conscience because it gave me quite a turn! :-)

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After buying tickets we stood in a short queue waiting for the next car to come down, we didn't have to wait long. Sad person that I am, I had a GPS in my pocked to record the location and height of the ride (it's around 3600ft at the bottom, that's how bad it gets on these trips). The cable car goes top to bottom in one long run with no intermediate pylons, It's a long way up on a very skinny wire.

N43 08 38.0 W4 48 44.0 (Google map)

Going up... that strange blue colour is due to the glass having a heavy blue tint to keep the heat of the sun out.

View from the cable car with lots of colour correction for that blue tinted glass. Alongside the cable car station is the car park, cafe and shops. I believe the large complex bottom left is a hotel and a large overflow car park top right of it.

11:10 Arriving at the top (around 6000ft) the guys walked around to one of the viewing points, this one projects out from the rock with an open steel mesh to stand on, yes, it does feel a bit precarious.

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A panorama taken on the opposite side to the cable car station.

N43 09 12.9 W4 48 20.2 (Google map)

11:32 Soft drinks on the terrace, it's rather nice up here.

N43 09 12.9 W4 48 20.2 (Google map)

We stayed at the top for a good while, then came back down again for the ride back to Ojedo, on the way back I tried a small diversion to a view point I'd seen on the Michelin map, we gave it a good try but had to give up after a quarter of a mile as the tarmac ran out, it was GS country after that, we returned to the road and good old reliable tarmac.

We got back to the hotel I thought the guys would want an afternoon off, but no, after a few cold drinks they were ready to go again! Having planned on being here or close by for a few days, I'd pre planned a few routes of various lengths all centred on Potes and Ojedo. As usual, I'd drawn them up with the aid of the Michelin road atlas of Spain and Portugal, taking in as many green bordered (scenic) roads as I could. This afternoons ride would be one of the shortest of around 70 miles and we're going anti clockwise from our hotel, who knows what we'll find along the way :-)

13:49 Leaving Ojedo and Potes behind us we headed out on the Ca-184, here's Dave cruising through on his SV650.

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14:25 Ebbo and Patto making good progress on the 1200RT's.

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We've turned off the Ca-184, on to the Ca-281 and stopped for a picture break, I think you can work out for yourself what the sign means.

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14:14 Mirador de el Jabali, cutting down the odd scrub or two wouldn't come amiss.

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14:21 A little further up the road we came to this viewpoint excitingly called Mirador de el Zorro! it has pretty much the same view as Mirador de el Jabali :-).

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14:49 Riding further on we came across a dam at the head of a lake and stopped for pictures again, On the grand scale of things it didn't look very wide, but it sure was deep!

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14:50 After taking a few pictures and having a ten minute breather, I suggested Patto and Dave ride ahead and I'd snap them as they rode down in to the gorge, off they went, then after taking a couple of pictures of them it was my turn to follow on.

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I'd only ridden about 300yds when looking at the view from a different angle I realised I'd seen it before! a Canadian guy called Alex (Global Rider) had posted a picture scanned from a Motorrad magazine some while back and was wondering where it had been taken, this was that exact view. I stopped and turned the bike back around, nearly dropping it on the hill in excitement. then jumped off for a proper look, yes, this was definitely the same place; the only thing 'not right' was the view through the tunnel, In reality, you couldn't see through it, someone in the art department back at Motorrad must have added a view to glam it up. Satisfied I'd taken enough pictures I turned around again and headed off to find Dave and Patto, chuffed to bits I'd cleared up a mystery that had been bugging me for quite some while :-)

Below is the original picture from Motorrad magazine scanned and posted by Alex (Global Rider) on this old Adventure Rider thread, I've just edited out the page crease. It looked so fantastic I thought it was a Photo Shop creation, and in part of course, it is.

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This is my picture from very nearly the same spot, but without the bogus view through the tunnel.

N43 08 11.2 W4 23 33.8 (Google map)

Patto and Dave had staked out the road ahead to get a picture of me riding in, but I'd taken so long to come along they'd nearly given up hope, I told them of my great discovery, but for some reason they didn't seem that impressed LOL :-)

15:00 I guess this picture sums up the spirit of the afternoon, despite suffering numb bums we were really having a great time.

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We rode on, and after a short while we came upon road works, the road crew had scraped up the surface ready for relaying, but had left behind a heavy coating of loose tarmac like marbles, this went on for a whole 8 miles! it's a miracle we all stayed on. The marble run ended at a little village called Rionansa. On the road junction in the middle of the village we found a cafe so we parked up the bikes and popped in for a drink. Unfortunately I haven't any pictures of it, but I do remember there was seating outside and air-condition inside, so a good place to stop. Cafe location N43 15 15.6 W4 24 26.8 (Google map)

We left the cafe on the Ca-181 and the scenery took a bit of a dive for a while, then booked-up again when we turned on to the Ca-855. The last stretch of road, the N621 back to Ojedo was really good, being a deep gorge road, it's just a pity it's such a busy road with traffic.

Back at the Infantado we parked our bikes up amongst the other guests machines, the two machines on the left belong to an English father and son who where staying here for a few days before moving on to explore the Pyrenees.

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Around the side of the hotel we found John enjoying a swim, Patto and Dave changed to join him. Me, I'd had enough excitement for one day, and went upstairs for a snooze :-)

22:23 Much later we went in to Potes looking for our evening meal. At the far side of the town we found a pizza place, as you can see we were the only customers inside, and after trying the thin under cooked pizza I can well understand why, in fact, looking at that pizza on my plate making me feel a little queasy even now, I think we'd better move on.

But lets not rubbish the place completely because there was at least this great art nouveau poster on the restaurant wall, I was wondering if it was a Mucha because I feel as if I've seen her before, but I've never seen her bear...

My goodness, that's strong water!

John, ebbo and Patto, poisoned, sunburnt and saddle sore, but having fun!

Last picture today, and it's of Potes band stand in the late evening sun taken form the river bridge, behind it is the main road with a row of shops and the odd bar or two under the arches.

It's Saturday tomorrow, and we're going to do a big loop around the central Picos, isn't it exciting!

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Here's today's two routes, the first to Funto de was a round trip of 30 miles, the second loop east of Ojedo was 67 miles

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The first elevation graph to Funto de, including the cable car ride to 6000ft

The second elevation graph for the afternoon's ride

Today's temperature graph, I've lumped both rides in to one graph here, quite a warm day.

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