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Travel StoriesSome Iberian Mountains
Tea Is Tea, Even If It's Poor Tea
Ride Date 23 September 2024
By Ren Withnell
It's a bright crisp morning. In the shade it's cold and the sun is barely taking the edge off as yet. I take a shower and wash some clothes, with any luck I should be able to dry them on the back of the bike as we're riding. Sharon is a little slower getting up, all those corners yesterday must have worn her out. She too showers and washes clothes. As our clean undies drip from a temporary line onto the hard dry grassless pitch we pack up and load the bikes.
Crisp and clear, the sun is starting to warm the day.
With nary a soul in sight we depart the campsite and onto the deserted CL537. This is a long, empty, mostly straight road. After the last couple of day's twists and turns I'll admit I'm missing a few interesting bends. I focus on getting to the city of Zamora where I have a plan to fix the tea situation.
Zamora is a city and cities have big shops. I have sat-nav configured to lead us to a large Carrefour. Surely, SURELY a large supermarket will have bona-fide drinkable tea? They must have, please, tell me they do, I beg of you. There's far too many dry fields and dusty towns to pass through before Zamora finally becomes a reality.
God I hate cities. There's cars everywhere, too many junctions, so many traffic lights, myriad lanes choices, and bewildering signage. Lady luck must be on our side as we arrive at a huge car park - together, alive, unharmed, and intact. I can't help but wonder if we'll be getting traffic violation notices in the post sometime in the future though.
We double lock the bikes and lug our valuables with our helmets into the shopping centre. The Carrefour is huge with multitudinous aisles filled with everything from car parts to electricals, sun loungers to giant hams. And - drum roll please - they do have "te English Breakfast" - black tea, real tea, proper tea. Mind you it's not PG Tips or Yorkshire Tea, there's only one option and I've had Carrefour's own brand before in France. It'll do, but it's not exactly the best. Blummin' foreigners.
BIG HAM! Big prices too. Even Sharon is shocked.
It's tea Jim, just not as we know it.
We stock up on other items like milk and tins. It's a pain in the behind to carry all this along with helmets and tank bags and jackets etc etc etc. We visit the loo, return to the bikes then get the hell outta town as fast as we can. Zamora is useful and functional but definitely not pleasurable.
We head north toward Benavente but skip the town and go north east. There's little else but endless arid farmlands, the occasional hills, long roads, and the speed is constantly interrupted with this European obsession of dropping the speed limit to pass any remote empty junction. Worse still the Spanish can't make their mind up. Sometimes there's a sign saying "end of the 40 limit", sometimes there's a sign stating "90" returning you to the normal limit, often times there's no sign at all leaving you wondering whether or not you can speed up.
A lonesome road north west of Benavente.
Finally, mercifully, delightfully we start to see mountains on the horizon. It is the Picos De Europa and we shall soon be among them once more. The grasses become a little greener and the flat roads become undulous although the corners remain shallow and seldom. Sat-nav shows only a few miles remaining as the hills become mountains and the bends become corners.
Look! The Picos peeking out above the town. We're getting closer.
Definitely closer now.
Cervera de Pisuerga is a typical Spanish town. I hoped it would be - ahem - the perfect size. Large enough to have shops, maybe a cafe or two, that kind of thing. Small enough not to be another godawful city with perplexing junctions and terrifying traffic. It appears to be perfect. We can pass through it safely yet there are shops and there is life here. Bliss.
The campsite has a refreshing amount of grass that feels almost novel now. There's a very smart glass walled restaurant and a number of lodges, although camping in your own tent is still available. However. Sharon has spied the chalets or lodges, whatever they are. I can see what is coming before I even dismount.
A young lady with good English guides us into the small reception at Camping Fuentes Carrionas. The camping isn't the cheapest, €23 per night, but we've paid more so that's OK. We've made it clear we want 2 nights as Sharon enquires about the lodges. The cheapest lodge is €75, well that's only €37.50 per night. Can we, can we Ren? I have just the merest whiff of suspicion but with rain in the forecast and her cute little face... go on then.
You guessed it. €75 PER NIGHT. But it's too late now. Sharon (and admittedly myself) has it in her (our) mind(s) the notion of a warm bed, our own toilet, proper seats and even, goodness me, heating! She looks at me, I look at her, we both remember we both have jobs and therefore money and we can afford this and we are here and anyway stuff it in for a penny in for a pound. We are booked in.
The lodge is great - but it ain't cheap.
The lodge or cabin or chalet is in fact quite lovely. 2 bedrooms, one with a double, one with twin beds. A small living area and a serviceable kitchen. A toilet come shower room. Most importantly it has heaters which after faffing around with various taps and switches and settings unexplained Sharon gets working on full blast. She will give me the doe eyes when it comes to bike repairs but when motivated by warmth Sharon can solve even the most complex systems.
A BED! A real bed with sheets and pillows and stuff.
Luxury I tell ya, LUXURY!
Soon we are stripping off as the sun sets and the air outside becomes chilled. After working out how to get the cooker going Sharon rustles up a pasta dish followed by doughnuts. It's my duty to brew up then wash up. The tea bags purchased earlier are barely acceptable but it is nice to get some kind of tea inside of me.
A walk around the site in the cold and dark evening reveals a selection of chalets, the camping area, the toilet block and some kind of communal area. The communal area is closed but a sign states campers can ask for the key if required. The site is fair. Not luxurious nor scruffy, I'd say a good 7, maybe 8 out of 10.
Outside the lodge our drying clothes are hanging in the porch. With the cold and now damp light rain there's little chance of them drying tonight so we bring them in and spread them out. With the levels of warmth now filling the whole chalet they ought to dry soon enough.
I could not honestly deny it is a most welcome experience being in a proper bed once more. As I close the curtains the light rain trickles down the window yet we are warm and dry and comfortable. It may have cost a lot of Euros but the timing is spot on. Oh, and we are here for 2 nights. Luxury.
Advertise here - contact ren@bikesandtravels.com
Prologue - Some Iberian Mountains
Organising a simple 2 week bike tour should be easy peasy. Watch Ren make this simple task as difficult as possible.
Easing Into The Trip
After plenty of flapping and fretting Ren can calm down and start to enjoy the ride. It's a simple journey today with no purpose other than getting closer to the forthcoming ferry.
Onto The Ferry
Ren takes a simple short trip and turns it into an unnecessarily arduous ride to the ferry. Then all the Dynamic Muppets have to do is get on the ferry. Should be easy - right?
Off The Ferry And Into The Affray
It's all waiting and chaos, confusion and queueing - and that's just getting off the ferry. Despite being in Spain the evening has a very English feel with an English friend.
The Wonder That Is Riano
What started out as a good day turns into a really good day. There is of course a mishap and some moaning, otherwise so far so good. What's the catch, there's gotta be a catch.
Feeling Lucky In Riano
Gird your loins dear readers - Sharon and Ren are accidentally having another "really good day". There's a glitch in The Matrix, buy a lottery ticket, this is a one time only special deal. Normal misery will return soon surely.
Same Peninsula Different Language
It's time to leave the beauty of Riano and head into the "Yellow Country". There's potholes and Ren making an ass of himself. Nothing new then.
Dull Roads And Strange Accommodation
There's plenty of scenery but the ride is not so interesting today. The accommodation is unexpected in both good and bad ways.
Excellence In Its Own Way
More Mountains! The Serra da Estrela provides a wiggly squiggly experience that's similar yet different to many other mountainous regions. The Dynamic Muppets get to ride and relish around.
Dams And Delights
As the Dynamic Muppets start their return leg Portugal has more scenic delights in store. Ren is still facing going cold turkey without tea - poor poor Ren.
Tea Is Tea, Even If It's Poor Tea
The morning is all about the desperate search for real tea. The afternoon would have been fine if Ren's wallet hadn't been opened so vigorously.
A Dull Day Here Is Better Than Home
The surroundings are great, the riding is fun, the town is lovely. This isn't the best day of the trip so far but Ren is just a miserable fool.
Reader's Comments
Upt'North ¹ said :-
You pair know how to live on a budget (?!?). That cabin looks a good overnight option.
That girl spoils you.
And you probably don't deserve it?
But....big towns and cities? How can they be so confusing?
But....they blummin are.
But....it's not only in Johnny Foreigner land it gets difficult, just pick an English town you are not familiar with, throw in 100,000 other folk who have no interest in concentrating on the task in hand, then a few wet slippy cobbles, then the Sat Nav talking at you incessantly, "turn around, turn around". It's no fun.
But....find a town you know and it's easy peasy lemon squeezy.
If you just had a moment to check the signs, traffic lights, temporary roadworks it would be fine and dandy but if dare to hesitate it leads to instant death, or worse.
What's worse than death I hear you ask? Lying in a hospital bed eating stale sandwiches through a straw. Possibly.
Pffffffftttttt.
25/02/2025 11:26:42 UTC
nab301 said :-
A very salubrious looking lodge , I'm sure the entrepreneur in you could have sublet the spare room to some random biker(s) !
Nigel
25/02/2025 14:25:21 UTC
Ian Soady¹ said :-
Stripping off? Hang on, this is a family publication isn't it?
Re cities: the only thing I loathe more than cities are motorways. In my long-ago return trip from Greece, I arrived at the east side of Turin and discovered there was no alternative to the motorway-standard ring road. It was around mid-day so I thought that if I just kept the sun on my left I should be able to cross the city reasonably easily. And so it proved, with the grid urban road system helping me to maintain my direction. I even felt confident enough to pause for an espresso.
25/02/2025 16:19:43 UTC
ROD¹ said :-
Ren, I travel in the knowledge that I will always find bread and cheese for food, but finding tea; That is an entirely different matter. I always carry enough tea bags for the entire trip.
On the subject of cities, I am not a fan, and even the cities I think that I know, I do not find "easy peasy lemon squeeze".
I had travelled through the city centre of Norwich for years on my way to the east coast as on a motorcycle it is quicker to go through the centre than taking the ring road. So a few years ago I took my regular route which I had taken many times before,only to find very light traffic which seemed strange for the city centre. I then realised that the city centre had changed to buses only. By the time I realised it was too late to do anything about it and received a fine through the post a few days later.
No. Not a fan of cities or towns.
25/02/2025 18:28:32 UTC
Ren - The Ed¹ said :-
There are the odd cities I do like. St David's in Pembrokeshire is fine, but with a population of around 1800 it's smaller than most villages. I developed rather a soft spot for Bury St Edmunds after working there for the odd week when I was an instructor. It ain't all purdy but it is nice enough and not that big at all with around 42k residents. Admittedly there's no hills (at all) but there's some lovely open countryside.
Ullapool is not a city but I do like Ullapool. A lot.
25/02/2025 21:13:33 UTC
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Travel StoriesSome Iberian Mountains