Thought I'd post a few photos of a recent trip to Spain/Portugal to discover some of the many off-road trails over there.
We met at Leicester Forest Services and rode down to Portsmouth to catch the ferry to Santander.
Waiting for the ferry.
They pack you in tight.
24 hours later we arrived in Spain ready for our trip. We decided that we would head for Sotres in the Picos to ride the Ruta de la Reconquista (Path of Renewal) which goes from Sotres to Espinama.http://reddeparquesnacionales.mma.es/parques/picos/guia/img/mapaParque.gif After about an hour on the road we had our first breakdown. One of the bikes decided it didn't want to run if you let the clutch out!! After a quick diagnosis, the faulty clutch switch was duly by-passed and we were soon on our way again. We managed to catch up with the rest of the crew at the next service area. After a quick drink we continued to make our way to Sotres; this proving slightly more difficult than it ought to have been as we managed to lose one of the group when he was sent on a reconnaissance mission to find me as I had lost the group when they missed a turn; thinking they had carried on to our destination, I went hell for leather to 'catch' them only to realise they were at the bottom of the 10km climb looking for me
. To cut a long story short we all arrived at Sotres (eventually!) and decided to book into a hotel for the night as the clouds were coming in thick and fast. The hotel only had one 4 bed room available, but after a bit of Scottish/Spanish negotiations the owner agreed to put another bed into his last room. We had dinner in the hotel and after a few beers decided to get our heads down. Oh the smell in the morning was as you could imagine!! 
View from hotel.
The next day we set off on the Picos route which turned out to be a fantastic scenic route. many thanks to Timolgra of this parish for the heads up
.
We continued on towards the start of the main off road route for the rest of the day taking in some great roads with endless switchbacks on perfect tarmac and hardly any other traffic. We arrived at Puebla de Sanabria around 5:00pm and decided to stay at the municipal campsite for a couple of nights. This would allow us to do a recce of the off-road route without all our luggage to get an idea of what was in store for us.
Here's what we found.
We headed back to our campsite happy with what we saw and looking forward to the rest of the route.
More pictures of what we saw over the next few days.
We met at Leicester Forest Services and rode down to Portsmouth to catch the ferry to Santander.
Waiting for the ferry.
They pack you in tight.
24 hours later we arrived in Spain ready for our trip. We decided that we would head for Sotres in the Picos to ride the Ruta de la Reconquista (Path of Renewal) which goes from Sotres to Espinama.http://reddeparquesnacionales.mma.es/parques/picos/guia/img/mapaParque.gif After about an hour on the road we had our first breakdown. One of the bikes decided it didn't want to run if you let the clutch out!! After a quick diagnosis, the faulty clutch switch was duly by-passed and we were soon on our way again. We managed to catch up with the rest of the crew at the next service area. After a quick drink we continued to make our way to Sotres; this proving slightly more difficult than it ought to have been as we managed to lose one of the group when he was sent on a reconnaissance mission to find me as I had lost the group when they missed a turn; thinking they had carried on to our destination, I went hell for leather to 'catch' them only to realise they were at the bottom of the 10km climb looking for me
. To cut a long story short we all arrived at Sotres (eventually!) and decided to book into a hotel for the night as the clouds were coming in thick and fast. The hotel only had one 4 bed room available, but after a bit of Scottish/Spanish negotiations the owner agreed to put another bed into his last room. We had dinner in the hotel and after a few beers decided to get our heads down. Oh the smell in the morning was as you could imagine!! View from hotel.
The next day we set off on the Picos route which turned out to be a fantastic scenic route. many thanks to Timolgra of this parish for the heads up
.
We continued on towards the start of the main off road route for the rest of the day taking in some great roads with endless switchbacks on perfect tarmac and hardly any other traffic. We arrived at Puebla de Sanabria around 5:00pm and decided to stay at the municipal campsite for a couple of nights. This would allow us to do a recce of the off-road route without all our luggage to get an idea of what was in store for us.
Here's what we found.
We headed back to our campsite happy with what we saw and looking forward to the rest of the route.
More pictures of what we saw over the next few days.
