During the previous Winter I had ear-marked a trip to visit the Harley-Davidson rally in Barcelona. Myself and Peter had a good trip a few years previously at the rally in Lugano, Switzerland so were keen to catch the ferry to Santander and ride down into Spain for the first time. While researching I stumbled across details for the famous San Fermin Festival (Bull run) in Pamplona and realised this would take place around the same time. While discussing at work Mark seemed interested in joining us on his Suzuki Bandit too so I changed our route options that meant we would forsake the rally for the festival instead.
I created some .itn route files for my TomTom Rider with a daily itinerary to suit a good week riding visiting some sights I had read about. I booked a four berth cabin on the Brittany ferries for us aboard the Pont Aven leaving from Plymouth. Some time later Lindsay (from the Sunday Harley ride out crowd who didn't have a Harley!) tagged along to take up the remaining cabin so the four of us met up on the Sunday morning at Strensham services for the ride down and the overnight ferry crossing with Lindsay having to re-calibrate his TomTom Rider using the ships GPS system!
I was quite excited about this trip and spent hours researching good routes and creating route files mostly from books and other resources. The plan would be to camp in the Picos de Europa mountain range near the popular town of Potes for 3 nights then move on through Rioja for a hotel night in Laguardia, then camp again near to Pamplona and attempt to take part in the famous San Fermin festival watching the first of the early morning bull runs. Later we would move on up the coast taking in Cangas de Onis for our return after riding more of the Picos and a night stay on the coast. 10 day trip in total with 7 riding days in Spain.
The stay in Potes was excellent with some hot weather as we disembarked the ferry followed by a fantastic ride through the mountains before reaching the campsite. Potes is quite popular amongst the touring biker comunity and outside activities and popular for climbers with its proximity nestled within the Picos de Europa mountain range. Our campsite 'La Viorna' on the outskirts was probably the best campsite I've ever stayed at with a sublime view and excellent toilet and shower facilities. I found the campsite recommended by Toby Ballentine in his excellent book; 'Motorcycle Journey's through Western Europe' and I do recall a very nice cafe too serving excellent Cafe con leche (coffee with warm milk).
After a night out in Potes drinking Asturias Cider the four of us went out for a circular route out in the mountains stopping at the Deer statue first and then riding out to the lake at Riano. My Harley-Davidson Dyna Low Rider was running well, with Peter riding his purple Dyna Sport, and Mark and Lindsay riding Suzuki Bandits 600 and 1200 respectively. Quite an odd mix of bikes but we seemed to be keeping together nicely. I do recall coming across a group of cattle in the middle of the road with us quite nervous a Spanish biker two up on a BMW GS made his way through the cattle by blipping his throttle. I watched with interest has the GS disappeared effortlessly into the mountains and I did think I'd like to take a GS out for a test ride at some point on my return. We really enjoyed riding in the Picos, the roads mostly clear of traffic, great fun riding through that valley gorge back into town.
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