Julian was up early and given the cardboard construction of our camping bungalow his elephant footsteps had us all up with him (despite him saying he was tip-toeing he flippin' wasn't so we're sure that was his plan all along to get on the trails asap)
We were dressed, bikes loaded and gone before 8am!!
We rejoined the TET Section 6 track within 5mins of leaving the campsite and on we went.
It wasn't long before we were heading up again and OMG this turned into a pretty narrow track with a very steep drop to the side, and it went up, and up, and up. It felt rather sketchy in some places so I hugged the bank beside me and didn't look down (too much ...... but I had to to enjoy the amazing views)
I got to the top of the climb and parked the bike in readiness to film the guys coming around the hairpin bend and riding up towards me. I waited, and I waited......and I waited. There was obviously something wrong so I headed back down the trail. I came around the corner and saw Jase off his bike but no sign of Kirky or Jules. I approached Jase and said, "Whats up?" and he replied, "Kirkys bike's gone over the edge". My heart sank. I replied, "you're joking?" and Jase walked over to the edge and said, "no, take a look, it's down there" ...... then he said, "Nah, only joking". Jeez man, not the funniest joke tbh given the similar incident a few days prior.
I parked my bike and started to walk back down the trail and saw Kirkys bike and Jules bike parked together. I'd missed all the fun but Jase's did another one of his VLOG videos which was comedy.
We got to the top and then skirted around the edge of the mountain and down the other side which was a long descent with lots of braking needed, so much so I lost my rear brake so had to wait till I was almost at the bottom for it to cool and fix itself (the rear brakes on these bikes are pretty pants tbh!)
We got down to the main road and found an interesting cafe (see the pics of the statues outside) for an absolutely dee-lish bacon and egg roll for brekkie. As we sat there there were loads and loads of bikes that passed us. Jules said as we were so close to Potes now - which is a mecca for bikes - so the roads all around this area are full of bikers.
We headed off for our next set of trails heading ever closer to the jewel in the crown - but more about that in a minute.
Some of the trails we rode reminded me very much of Dartmoor, two wide gravel tracks with longish grass in the middle, a stone wall to one soyde with open grass to the other, with a few trees ...... but what you dont get on Dartmoor is the backdrop of the mountains like you do here (nor the 24 degrees temps that is was by this point).
Descending this trail we came across our first and only TET'er heading in the other direction. He was on a CRF 250 or 300 Rally luggaged up and was looking pretty clean so he'd probably just started his adventure. I gotta say he scared life out of me coming towards me but we passed each other safely.
We got to Arenas de Cabrales where we hit the amazing road to Sotres through the gorge with the huge cliffs of the mountains above us. Wow oh Wow absolutely AMAZING scenery
Sotres is a dead end village but we stopped for a drink before hitting THE trail we'd all been waiting for, the transition between TET Sections 6 and 7, the border between the Asturias region and the Cantabria region and the amazing mountains of the Picos De Europa. Well, the pictures give an impression but unless you're actually there seeing it with your own eyes you just can't comprehend the scale. Absolutely amazing. Inwas absolutely blown away.
Kirky and I were taking pictures and Jules and Jase were up ahead. We heard them on the comms saying there was a blockage of bikes on a hairpin bend ahead. They turned back and came to the clearing where we met a German guy in a T7 who'd been travelling for 2mths and an Irish guy on his CF Moto 450. We chatted and chucked about the GS riders stuck on the bends ahead and waited out the chaos before heading up ourselves. When we'd scaled the switchbacks we hit the ridge. Well, I've seen YouTube footage of the ridge and heardy mates tell le about it but nothing prepared me for it. It was phenomenal. The absolute highlight of the trip.
We rode the ridge then went up to the hotel (which is actually closed) but the cafe/bar is open so we had a sandwich amd a drink and chilled looking at the scenery.
It took some effort to get back on the bikes as were were all feeling pretty wiped out by this point in the day, and from the whole trip. With the sun beating down on us we all could easily have flaked out for a kip on the top of the mountain.
We mustered the energy to get back on the bikes and headed down the trail into Potes to meet up with our two missing compadre's, Taff and Marc. We came into Potes and gave them a call. They were sat in a cafe having a drink after their lunch having been on a road ride. We met them and joined them for a drink then they showed us back to the hotel they'd booked for us. Hotel Toscana, absolutely lovely (cheers fellas, top job)
We unloaded our bikes, had a shower then sat having a beer whilst catching up on the past two days we'd spend apart. It was late afternoon so too early for dinner but we were a bit peckish so we nipped over to the local supermarket and grabbed a few provisions - baguette, pate, olives, crisps - and munched on that with a few extra beers to get us through.
As evening approached we walked the short distance into town and had a little look around before choosing a restaurant for dinner (our first choice didn't go well as after seating us they ignored us so we got up and left!)
Fed and watered two headed home and four of us stayed out for a few drinks.
We walked home and it was bedtime for me.
We'd completed all the riding we'd planned to do so tomorrow is definitely a chill out day as we were all absolutely knackered but we'll likely ride some roads around this area on Wed before heading for our ferry on Thur (about 2.5hrs away) so there may be one or two reports left to come from this AMAZING trip! Watch this space.
-- Edited by Kwaka Geoff on Tuesday 17th of June 2025 09:18:23 PM
