El Canal de Castilla

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I made the early morning train from Santander to Quintanilla with four minutes to spare. Cycling into Santander by moonlight I took a few wrong turns even with Google maps doing it's best to keep me right. Although sometimes I really wonder why it chooses the routes it does.

Anyway, for me four minutes to spare is a fairly large margin!

Quintanilla at 9am on a Saturday morning is a very sleepy little village. I easily found the road to Alar del Rey. As I'd hoped Quintanilla is pretty much on the far side of the mountains and I enjoyed the bit of descent. I did keep stopping to check out the bird life. Although it was all birds I see at home, finches, collared doves, starlings.

Alar del Rey is a very picturesque village and I stopped for a cafe con leche before joining the Canal de Castillla.

The canal stretches for hundreds of kilometres through the agricultural plains. I was fortunate that Roberto, one of the cyclists I met on the boat, told me about it.

I spent a lovely two days cycling from Alar del Rey to Medina de Roseco. The path was flat, free of traffic, beautifully located along the canal, birdlife everywhere. What's not to like. In the two days I was on the path Id say I saw barely a dozen people, walkers and cyclists.

The route I followed took in part of The Camino francese ,GR 89 and velo route 1. Velo route 1 is the Atlantic route and goes up the west of Ireland and through Derry. I've done quite a lot of it in a very random order in various countries along its route.

There was one section where the cycle route diverted around a section of the canal for some reason. However that turned out to be very fortuitous for me. Cycling alonng surrounded by huge arable fields on either side I noticed three large goose like birds flying across the road just ahead of me. A quick scramble for the binoculars and I saw staright away they weren't geese. I suspected they were great bustard. A check in the Collins guide later confirmed that was what they were. Another life tick for me. They landed in a field a couple of km away. I did get a very bad photo, enough to confirm the ID.

I spend both nights camping wild along the canal. I waited till the clouds were turning quite red and put the tent up. Currently it's dark here at 8pm, and it gets dark quickly. It's not clear till after 8am but the first morning was beautifully moon lit.

It rained all night last night so I just lay on till the rain stopped about 8.30. Fortunately it didn't rain after that which was more than I'd hope for.

For anyone looking to do a nice gentle cycle trip in Spain, the Canal de Castilla would be perfect. It passes through some nice villages and there are more within a couple kilometres of it. I bet it's really nice in spring when the birds are singing. Just do a few kilometres a day, relax and enjoy it.

I'm now in Zamora in a nice hostel. Great to get showered. I also have a couple of nice mosquito bites. A mossy managed to get into the tent the first night. Icoukd hear it humming it's way around inside the tent, but I couldn't get it. When I fell asleep it had dinner! I have a fine bite on my cheek, nice and visible!

I should be more or less at the Portuguese border tomorrow night. I speak no Portuguese at all so it's gonna be fun. Looks like I'll have to do a bit of climbing, hopefully not too much.

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Photos

Alar del Rey
Great white egret, grey heron and mallard

I see you.
I stopped to check my bearings and had the feeling I was being watched. I turned round and saw this angel.

campsite.
It rained all night. The dry patch is where the tent was. Rule number one for wild camping: when you leave no one should be able to see that you were there.
If it hadn't been for that pesky rain!

Zamora
I took a wee walk near the hostel. Normally it's Irish bars I come across.