23 September 2022 - Downtime at Playa De Baldayo

Miles driven today = 0

Total Miles to date = 1,486

Time is weird isn't it?  We are 8.6 degrees west of the Greenwich meridian here and more than 3 degrees west of Lands End.  And yet our clocks are an hour ahead of the UK.  As a result it's still pretty much pitch black at 8am, which, despite having been retired for more than a year now, I still consider to be a lie in.  No wonder Spanish cafes and restaurants are never open at the times when my body clock says its time to eat.  I haven't adapted yet.

It was an overcast start to the day this morning so we took the opportunity to give the van a good sweep out.  We've got our hand held vac with us so we made the most of having hook up to use it and recharge.  Ditto with my beard trimmer, which was long overdue an appearance, and of course the batteries for our bikes.

At lunchtime the skies cleared, so we got the bikes out and went for an e-assisted pedal up the coast.  First stop was a great little beach, Playa Arnela, which we had to ourselves once an elderly and very chatty Spanish couple had left us to it.

There was an interesting, if slightly smelly, cave.

We continued through the tiny settlement of Leira.  This was looking back along the coast from there with the track we had cycled visible around the headland.

We stumbled across this great archway which I belatedly realised is marked on the map as "Furna Furada".  Tort for scale.

And from my position stood on top of the arch this was the view looking out to sea.

Here's my brave soldiergirl.  Lisa did brilliantly today.  Her bike isn't really set up for off-roading and there were a few steep sections of loose gravel where she understandably felt it prudent to get off and walk but she pushed on with a stiff upper lip and dogged determination.

We reached the small town of Caion and plonked ourselves down for a well deserved beer at a harbourside bar.

This was part of our view across the harbour.  I'm not sure how well I would sleep at night if my house was built on top of a cave like that. 

We took the smooth surfaced road option to get ourselves back to the campsite at Playa De Baldayo.  The leccy bikes coped admirably with the long climb which took us past this viewpoint looking back down on Caion and its impressive beach.  And I loved the long sweeping downhill to the campsite with my chin on the handlebars like a big kid to minimise drag.

The rest of the afternoon has involved a dip in the Atlantic and a stroll to the other end of the beach and not very much else really other than spending some time with our old friend San Miguel.  But we've needed a non-driving day.  It's been long overdue.

24 September 2022 - Laxe and Camarinos