On 18th October, we left Salamanca and continued our journey North, following the Autovía Ruta de la Plata (the A66) which had been our route since joining it back in Andalusia when we picked it up at Seville…

It was a 390km drive and, as usual, until we were just South of Gijón, the traffic was light and it was a pretty straight forward and easy drive.

We arrived at our new Air BNB, in a place called Oviñana, which is near to Cudillero, around 4pm which, once we had unpacked, gave us the opportunity to stretch our legs with a walk up to the Faro de Cabo Vidio (the lighthouse on the Cabo Vidio) approx 2km further along the road. The walk was just what we needed after our long drive and gave us our first look at the Atlantic Ocean on Spain’s north coast…

Yesterday (19th October) was another rainy day but warm… we decided that we would have a walk around Oviñana where are staying. It turned out to be a lovely walk, despite the rain, drizzle & low cloud to start with, because it had a bit of everything… road, footpath, woods, hills, flat, beach and finishing with a stroll along the coastal cliffs 😊

At one point (at Playa de Vallina) the path went down a very steep hill to the beach so, of course we decided we needed to stick a toe in the sea (or boot at least!)… We went down onto the beach, me armed with the camera and Pete on wave watch – of course, having waited a few minutes with no wave reaching us, Pete thought we should move a bit closer to the sea and yes, we ended up getting drenched with a wave coming in up to mid-thigh (for me anyway!). It wouldn’t matter so much but the photos were crap! 🤣

The rest of the walk was just as nice but, like any coastal path, it had a few steep ups and downs…

… and with plenty of wildlife too!

So where are we? If you were to draw a line directly North from where we are staying now, I think you would just skim the Isles of Scilly and then hit somewhere near Rosslare Harbour, County Wexford in Ireland… 🇮🇪 which is about 600 miles away!

Today (20th October which, incidentally, would have been Mum & Dad’s 62nd wedding anniversary… ❤️) the sun has finally come out again! Great timing as it’s our last full day in Spain…

It was a really nice walk and, apart from a stroll around Bilbao when we get there tomorrow, it will probably be our last walk in Spain 😔 until we return again… maybe in 2025? 🤞

We made the most of the weather and went for a walk to a local beach… Playa de San Pedro de La Ribera. The weather has been so nice we should have taken our swimming cossies! Sadly, we didn’t and, after yesterday’s half-soaking, we didn’t risk sticking a boot toe into the sea today! 🤣 However, as it turned out, we still returned to our digs with soaked feet as the footpath home was flooded to a depth far higher than our walking shoes! Ho hum 😆

We always thought we would like the North coast of Spain although it’s not somewhere you really hear about as a holiday destination. From the little we have seen, I am sure we will look to revisit this area & explore the Northern coast a bit more – Pete has already started looking at Air BnB sites and talking about getting the ferry to Bilbao! One thing we like about here is the old outhouses that a lot of the houses have – here’s a selection of what I mean:

So, this is our last night here in Oviñana before we make our way east along the coast to Bilbao (approximately 320km / 3 hours away) for 1 night before we catch the ferry home to Portsmouth… so I could well be back in the UK when I next write (or in the middle of the ocean? Need something to do on the 29-hour ferry trip! 😂) – can’t believe how quick our trip seems to have gone now although, when I think back, we have seen so much that it also feels like we have been away forever!

Have a good evening everyone! 😉