Wk 9 – NW Spain to Portugal

A Coruna to Porto

Mon 11th to Sun 17 July
A Coruna – Cambados – Ourense – Porto

Mon 11 – Wed 13 – A Coruna Lay Days

Just lazing on the beach with this beauty 😘

Thur 14/7 – A Coruna to Cambados – 150klm

Today was promising to heat up so we hit the road a little earlier than usual, and then spied a JetWash / Carwash so washed the bike. A bike always looks better when its clean and shining, especially a red bike.
Then it was off to Santiago de Compostela which was our only real stop-off point for today.

We parked the bike and took a stroll. Had a squiz at the Monastery de San Martino

Then just down the hill was the Cathedral Santiago de Compostela with its many hundreds of pilgrims – most of them hard core who’d trekked the many hundreds of kilometres to get there from north, south, east and west.
From the viewpoint of a person of faith, I do hope they find or have found what they are looking for.

Past the Museo da Terra Santa with the Convento de San Francisco de Santiago right next to it.

It was heating up, over 30c and humid so we indulged in a coffee americano and shared a little cake for lunch.

The rest of the day was uneventful as the temp rose to 35c and we followed the coast road south. It is surprisingly built up along here, which of course meant slow travel, which affected our air conditioner, which made for a not too pleasant ride.
We did a circuit of A Illa de Arousa and then just down the road was Cambados and our very welcome room with soothing shower and a cooling breeze wafting in.

We went for a walk, checked the place out. It has some history from the 16th century, and I dare say a lot earlier than that.

Tomorrow promises to get to 41c, so we’re mentally preparing for that, although tomorrow is Friday so there will be some conciliation.

Fri 15/7 – Cambados to Ourense – 180klm

We’re up and ready to go but the landlord is in no hurry with breakfast so it’s 9am by the time we’re on the road.

However, last night there’d been a storm pass over Cambados, not really enough to cool us there, but it’d given the area east of there a real pasting which was evidenced by all the gutter wash and road litter we encountered as we travised the same area today. But the real score was the lower temps today; we’d been expecting in the order of 40c by midday but it only got to 29c which is a whole lot more bearable. We stopped for a brew – somewhere

As is our/my norm, we were traveling the road less traveled (I’d say hardly seeing another vehicle for 60klms qualifies), and we passed through at least a dozen small villages to small towns. Here’s the thing, how do they survive? Because not one of them had any arable land around them – just scrub and rocks. I was raised on a farm outside a little town called Paparoa in the north of Auckland, New Zealand, and Paparoa was and still is a darn sight smaller than any of the places we rode through today, yet Paparoa is surrounded by a 100 square kilometres of very prosperous farm land. So how/where do they make a living? Just saying.

We rocked into Ourense at around 12.30 and found our way to our digs in this like plaza. One of the great advantages of riding a motorcycle is that you just ride straight in, one way lanes mean nothing.

We showered and snoozed a bit then ventured out at 6pm; it was very hot by now. There’s hardly any people in these pics – that’s because no-one else was stupid enough to be wandering around in the heat.

It cooled down about 9pm so we joined the locals in our own private little praza. We left them to it around 11pm – they kept at until 5am, right outside our double glazed window. It was a good thing we had a room with air conditioning.

Sat 16/7 – Ourense to Porto – 200klm

It was pleasant day for a ride so we headed south and west. 50klms down the easy, sweeping and undulating road we came to Roman Caldaria of Bande, an ancient Roman fort by a reservoir with hot springs which are popular for bathing in warm, mineral-rich water. There were quite a number of campers there.

Another 30klms and we stopped at Caldas de Lobios in the village of Bubaces, which is in the Baixa Limia-Xurés Natural Park. It is specifically known for it’s hot springs.

We were pretty much immediately in Portugal – the border guards showed no interest

The N308-1 wound us up and down and through the Peneda Gerês National Park with its historic villages and fantastic scenery. The top end of the road was virtually deserted.

We eventually popped out at Vila da Veiga at the top end of the dammed Cavado River which is a large lake that is extremely popular with holiday makers – they’re everywhere. We stopped for a coffee.

Then continued on to Braga where we stopped for another coffee and some tapas amongst the tourist throng.

It was heating up so we took the sooks way out and hit the freeway for the final 45klms into Porto where we lodged in to our nice little apartment.

Sun 17/7 – Porto Lay Day

We took 8 hours and saw as much of this wonderful city as we could.
First, a Hop-On-Hop-Off bus trip which I have to say was quite a disappointment in terms of commentary.

Followed by a River Cruise.

And finished the day with a wine tour.

All for the equivalent of A$45 each. Not too bad.

Many of the buildings are adorned with these mosaic tiles.

OK, that’s it for this week. Tomorrow its on to Vila Real.
If you’re interested here’s the rest of our projected journey through Spain/Portugal.