"Like riding up a one-way street"

On day nine of his ‘Once to the end of the world – and back’ tour Sigi Grabner cycled 152 kilometers and 2785 meters in altitude in six hours 45 minutes. Sigi describes the experiences he had on his journey from Villalba to Cangas del Narcea in his daily blog.

In the morning I heard the rain pattering against the window and turned off the alarm … today I allowed myself the luxury of getting up at leisure and having a leisurely breakfast – and then the weather cleared up as I was checking out. A miracle!

The trip over the mountains was good, more storms than rain. The gusts blew me everywhere. I was riding zigzags in the wind. Here in Galicia a cyclist has to carry a bit of extra weight, otherwise the wind will carry you away – or you’ll take off. The region is wild, weathered and there’s lots of precipitation. Today when I had a view of the mountains, which are 1200 meters at most, I saw snow!

At Alto del Acebo at about 1040 meters I got caught in a rain shower and got drenched, but then I rode over the pass and … it was suddenly bone dry! Not two kilometers further and it was warm, the street was also dry. Amazing! I’ve seldom seen such differences in weather as I’ve seen between Galicia and Asturia.

To my surprise, in this region I crossed the Way of St James again. Spaniards and French who prefer to take the route from the north to Santiago. They came towards me in droves, on foot and by bike ... Yes, here there’s much more happening than on the classic east-west route in the south. I’m sure that I’m the only person who ever traveled the other way. I was the only person going the opposite direction. It was like riding up a one-way street. A Pole begged me for 80 cents. I gave it to him; he didn’t want more.

I rode up and down several mountain passes in the ‘opposite direction’ and inquired about a room in Pola de Allande. The innkeeper couldn’t accommodate me. He had reserved the whole village for a party of 100 French, all cyclists who were going the opposite direction to me of course. Twelve kilometers further in Cangas, a small town in the mountains, I then stopped for the day.

At dinner I really lived it up and indulged in a total protein boost: They had crayfish on the menu, which is certainly freshly caught here. I really got stuck in and sat eating grilled crayfish with sea salt for a good hour. It was fantastic! I didn’t drink wine with it but cider. It’s the done thing here …