Day out in Potes and a ride up the mountain on Kisbee.

---

Rain was forecast for today, all forecasters seem to have agreed on that all week. We found one forecast that promised a dry morning at least so got up a little earlier than usual and headed down into town. We had hoped there might be a market but there wasn’t and the town was surprisingly quiet. The car parks were full so we don’t know where all the occupants of the cars were but not many were wandering the streets of this very attractive town.

We have of course visited Potes before so we just did an amble around, along the river, through the narrow streets of very beautifully restored and decorated buildings. Had a good coffee and shared a cake under the stone arcade which lines part of the main street through to the bridge. Found a rather super addition to Liz and Graham’s caravan collection of musical animals – Graham is going to be so pleased with us but not going to say here what it is as hate to spoil the surprise !

Managed to not buy lots of souvenirs with no use whatsoever but did find something reasonably nice and useful for Izzy and George. That’s all our shopping done except the Wine. Just realised that we leave on a Sunday, tomorrow, so must check the opening times of the Carrefour near Santander as we normally take a good stock back to last Bob through the summer and there are usually a few foodie items I like to take back as well.

Once we’d finished our tour of Potes and still no real sign of rain, we took Kisbee for a challenging ride up towards Fuente De. We took a turn to the right and followed the road as far as we could go, which was the little hamlet of Lon. A few houses, a local cheese makers, a farm, tiny church and some pretty old farm tools. That was Lon so we went back down the hill to the main road and continued on our way.

The beauty of having a scooter is, that if we take a road which is a dead end, there is no effort involved in just turning around and retracing the route. On foot or cycle would be a different matter altogether which reminds me why we don’t cycle.

We carried on until we were halfway to Fuente De but the last stretch we covered was an 11% hill (up) and though poor Kisbee was brave about it and did manage to overtake a couple of cyclists he was gasping so we took pity and decided that was as far up that hill as we were going. We did find another side road which took us up to the rather delightful historic little village of Mogrovejo. Flowers everywhere, the first real hollyhocks we’ve seen, everything decorated and we paid €1 each to visit the little school museum (Museo de La Escuela). We contemplated lunch as there were two bars but as usual couldn’t really work out what was on offer. It would help if we liked spicy sausage and strong local cheese but we don’t. We settled for our usual Almond Magnum as I can ask for two of those without a problem and without risk of accidentally ordering something we don’t want.

Back down the little hill to the main road and then towards Potes. We passed the campsite we stayed in last time which was a little further out of town than we remembered. Very happy though with this campsite we are using as the views, as we can see the mountains, which still retain some patches of snow, now the cloud has risen.

The sun popped in and out all morning but while we were up in Mogrovejo we had spots of light rain. Sure enough the cloud started to come across and down over the mountain tops. I decided to have my swim a little earlier and managed 17.5 lengths before I realised it was raining. Underred I completed my target of 20 as I was wet any way.

So the forecast rain did arrive and it did keep us in the Tandy for a while but not for long as it soon passed over. We wonder sometimes why we bother with weather forecasts we can forecast ourselves much more accurately by looking out of the window or tapping the barometer we have in the Tandy. As I sit typing this, the noise of rain on the roof has almost stopped and the birds are singing their little heads off again outside. There are lots of them and there is quite a chorus.

This is the last full day of our trip as tomorrow evening we catch the LD Lines ferry from Santander to Poole. Had a not terribly good revelation earlier. Tomorrow is Sunday and that means that most Spanish supermarkets will be closed. I’ve checked the Carrefour near Santander and it says open Monday to Saturday. This means it will be very difficult to do our normal pre-home shopping trip. We generally stock up well with cheap white wine for Bob as it always seems so silly to pay £5 a bottle in the Uk when we can buy the same quality of wine in France or Spain for often less than €2. There is a small supermarket in Potes which is open until 1.30 tomorrow so will stop and buy what we can on the way through. A shame though as I always enjoy my leisurely browse round the supermarket just before we go home and usually find a few little luxury food items. Hope we can find some cider to take home for Chris next door as that was also on the supermarket shopping list !

---