The ferry from Portsmouth slid into its berth at Santander around 6am, just as the sun was cresting the horizon, which lit the town up in a lovely light and promised a beautiful sunny day. As I rolled down the ramp, I felt a bit relaxed, considering I'd had next to no sleep on the ferry. When I booked, all the cabins were full, so I took the 'Comfy chair' option, what a joke, those seats were designed by a descendant of the Spanish Inquisition, who was clearly laughing their heads off at every passenger on those ships!
Couple that with several issues which seemed to crop up as I came to start the bike. 1. Couldn't remember where I'd stashed the bike key for safety, so hunt out the spare. 2. GPS had no base map and I couldn't find the torqx key to unlock it. 3. Two phones had no base maps on the app I'd spent ages downloading a week ago. Technology, it's fab when it works, but a dead weight when it doesn't!
I called into a petrol garage with a cafe, used their WIFI to re-download the maps again, one problem resolved, fuel was next and some Euro's. Once all of these were sorted, I followed the purple line on a blank screen on the GPS, which is surprisingly easy when you've used them as much as I have over the years. Right, riding time!
Tarmac roads took me out of Santander to some villages and then into some woodland alongside a river for the first of many lovely trails today. The TET here starts to climb pretty quickly and the lanes get longer and steeper. The views back down to the sea under a deep blue sky settle me into a rhythm of climb, traverse, descend. I saw some fab wildlife as I rode by, a huge vulture, plenty of black kites, a buzzard and lots of the local guard dogs protecting the stock in the hills.
My first fall of the trip came in the afternoon, a short section full of deep puddles. I cleared them until the last one, which turned out to be deep and have a vertical exit face. The bike stopped dead, I didn't, at least not until I hit the stony surface about 4 foot in front of my bike! A bruised hip, a broken phone case bracket and mud everywhere. (Note to self; go a bit more steady with these puddles than the ones in the UK!!).
I finished the day riding in the dark up and over a pass under some of the main peaks of the Picos. The nearly full moon and clear sky gave a glowing light to everything and the snow on the tops just made things brighter. Good job as there was plenty of ice on the rough surface to avoid. I love riding in the dark in the hills, its a bit scary as you're dependent upon your lights normally and they are limited but on nights like this one, it may as well have been daylight.
Once I'd descended past the icy bits, I set up a camp by a metal cross. Once the tent was pitched, I stood enjoying the fantastic night, before the call of some Dalwhinnie and my sleeping bag pulled me inside.
A superb and varied day of riding, this is what the TET is all about.
