Day 70. Friday 16 May.

A big day in the car: 615 km to Ribadesella in northern Spain. Not much we can say about the trip – eight hours all up. We took roads with no tolls, so it was a bit longer than it could have been, but probably a bit less stressful. 

The upper Douro hung with fabulous mist initially. Then the landscape moved from mountains/valleys to plains planted with wheat (could have been in WA, we thought) with fewer and fewer villages. After an hour or so and coffee at Miranda we crossed into Espanha.

We stopped for a lunch break and refuel at a village just outside of Leon – Villaquilamb. In the restaurant – La Pineda de Leon Villaquilamb,  D asked for the menus and was taken into a dining room, table set up, and offered the menu. He struggled to make the waitress understand that we were just after some toasted sandwiches. A lady of about our age interrupted, explained to the waitress what we were after, and let us know we’d have to go into the bar area to eat. No problem. D asked if she was English (she had a refined accent). ‘Australian’ she replied. ‘Me too’ said D. ‘Where from?’ She asked. ‘Canberra’. ‘Me too – where?’ ‘Fisher’ ‘We lived in Stirling!’

She had arrived in Australia as a very young girl from Spain. Her husband came to Australia as a young adult to work for Air Services Australia, taking out citizenship. As their two kids are adult, and both living in Europe, they moved to this little village just outside Leon (we think it may be home territory for one of them because they mentioned looking after elderly mothers). Such a small (generous) world: they secretly bought the lunch (0% alcohol, for the record) beers.

Soon after lunch we were in the Asturias and what a sight! Jagged grey mountains of rock, some still with snowy tips and then the road wound down and down. It’s now green all around, with the Coste Verde an arm’s length away. And once again, the cameras on our little devices can’t do the scenery justice.

Doris was on her best behaviour today and took us straight to our new home, with its own squirrel. This place is up there with the best on this trip. Essentially it’s a stand alone cottage (one of two) with lots of space and lots of parking! Settled in, and the ‘chicken pellet’ fire started up by itself. ‘I didn’t touch it’, said D.

A bit later Monica came down the hill to welcome us, and have a chat. It was she who had started the fire to warm up the room for our arrival (weather has been unusually cool). She and her husband had built the two cottages themselves: they had contracted a builder to do it, but were ripped off in a scam. They apparently won their case in the courts but that didn’t result in any compensation, so they set to and did it by themselves. It has been operating for almost a year and is apparently doing well. Monica was delighted to hear that the squirrel had welcomed us; she’s been worried about it since it’s home tree was heavily pruned and ailing. She has put nuts out on a feeder for it, but since they weren’t touched (by the squirrel) she has eaten them. T suggested that she might climb the tree. Monica has suggested a ‘wild beach’ to walk on this weekend and several other spots to check out.

Dinner tonight has been a bit minimalist (hamburgers, potatoes (there is a God) and a greens, tomatoes, olives and sliced onion salad, since some of the other vegies don’t seem to have arrived in the cooler bag but we’ll hardly starve.