27 September 2022 - The "Cockle Coast"

Miles driven today = 43

Total Miles to date = 1,661

We made our exit from the hubbub of Santiago de Compostela with a view to finding somewhere a little more relaxing after yesterday's exertions.

The coastline from here heading south to the Portuguese border is divided by a succesion of deep inlets known as the Rias Baixas.  We headed towards the southern shores of the first of these, Ria de Muros e Noia, a relatively undeveloped area also known as the Cockle Coast.

We bypassed the town of Noia, crossing the Ria via an impressive looking bridge and made a brief stop in the small harbour town of Porto do Son.  Although it was a pleasant enough looking place, there didn't seem to be anywhere convenient to park the van there so we continued another few kilometres along the coast to Barona.

We pulled into a lay-by from where we found a signposted path down to the shore.  There on a rocky promontory is Castro Barona, an Iron Age fortified settlement which dates back to pre-Roman times.

The settlement is protected by rocky cliffs on 3 sides.  These have also assisted in keeping the remains of the settlement relatively unscathed from the Atlantic waves.

On the landward side it was protected by a deep ditch, dug into the rock, and 2 lines of defensive walls.

The inhabited areas consisted of small oval shaped buildings, which would have had thatched roofs.  The walls have been reconstructed to give a really good impression of how the settlement would have looked when inhabited.

The settlement was abandoned in the latter part of the 1st Century AD, about the same time as the Romans' occupation of the area.

But while they were there they had a pretty damn fine beach next door to enjoy.

We moved on to find somewhere we could park up and relax for the rest of the day.  Laptops could do with recharging as much as we do, so ideally we were looking for somewhere with hook up available.  We had read about a new motorhome parking area at Praia das Basonas, which fitted the bill and is supposedly open all year round, but when we got there we found no sign of any vans and the gates were very firmly locked.

So we turned round and parked up for lunch in a small gravel car park at the end of the same track.  There are no obvious signs to discourage overnight stays so we pretty much made our minds up there and then that provided nobody objects fiercely to our presence then we will stay the night.  Laptop batteries can wait another day.

We're in a coastal conservation area of sorts and will obviously leave nothing but tyre tracks in the gravel. There is a boardwalk down to the beach, which has more of the glittering sand we've already got a van full of.

There are some great rock pools to explore too.  Something I never tire of.

Another boardwalk leads along the coastline through several different habitats.

There's an access point to another fantastic beach just a little further along the trail.

We've seen lizards scuttling around, seabirds diving into the surf and a fairly large bird of prey hunting close to the van. 

At one point the path passes through some pinetrees.  We got very excited when we found some bolete mushrooms, especially as we were planning on having a risotto this evening anyway.  

But on further investigation it seems they are probably Bovine and Weeping Boletes, which aren't great from a culinary perspective so we've reverted to plan A with common supermarket varieties in the risotto and maybe we will pop the boletes into a stir fry tomorrow.

Quick late update... We've driven nearly 100 miles since we left the Finisterre lighthouse yesterday morning.  But we can still see it!  It's less than 25 miles away as the seagull flies and I've checked it's one flash every five seconds, so it's definitely the one which is visible from our windscreen.  Crazy!

28 September 2022 - A wet day on the Ria de Arousa