A mini-adventure

I was reminded last weekend about a category of driver that I completely forgot to include on my list of Spankers . What refreshed my memory was this:

It was painted on a parked truck that I saw yesterday whilst in La Bañeza, a small town in Castilla-León, the province over the mountains from here. According to Duncan, who is currently working as a long-distance lorry driver, this is very common on trucks from Andalucía, although I can´t say I´ve ever noticed it before. What I have noticed it a similar picture stuck on cars here in Asturias. It´s a specific sticker with a picture of the Virgin of Covadonga on it - she being the patron saint of Asturias, although most places round here seem to have their own version: we have one whose statue resides in the chapel next to our house - the Virgin of Llaneces. So, back to the point. There are many cars that drive around Asturias with this sticker on them, and underneath the picture is written ´Yo conduzco, ella me guía´which translates as ´I drive, she guides me´. The first time I saw this I wasn´t sure if I´d read correctly, but no, it´s true: there are people here who think they can drive in the middle of the road, straddling both lanes and pull over abruptly when it suits them, without indicating of course, because the virgin will look after them. There must be many drivers who, when stopped by the police for some misdemeanour or other, use the virgin as a scapegoat for their atrocious driving: "I'm ever so sorry officer, I was only behind the wheel, it's the Virgin´s fault, she made me do it." And you can imagine a similar story on insurance claim papers - cause of accident: The Virgin.

Anyway, back on track. What was I doing in La Bañeza? Well, Duncan called on a rainy Saturday to tell Matt he was holed up there for the weekend before taking his truckload of tuna cans to be filled with tuna fish in Galicia. He delighted Matt about tales of the bike race that was taking place, with live music in the evenings, stalls and food and a generally festive atmosphere, even free beer. Needless to say, Matt was very eager to hop on his Aprilia and get down there. However, there was just one little problem to this plan, namely the wet, atrocious, Asturian weather. To cut a long story short, I was persuaded to accompany my beloved on his trip in the car on Sunday (next time there´s a concert I want to go to I will use this trip as leverage to make Matt come with me) and Susana, Duncan´s wife, came along too.

As we got closer to La Bañeza we saw numerous bikes driving away from the town. Matt optimistically decided that they were people who had long distances to travel and so had left early, but on arrival it became apparent that we had indeed missed the races and accompanying festivities. This was rather more disappointing for Matt than myself as I was enjoying luxuriating in the sun that has recently forsaken Asturias and left it at the mercy of threatening, grey rain clouds. So, determined to make the best if it we went for a stroll around the town, and them settled down for a few beers before a tasty dinner in posh mesón.

The river in La Bañeza.




In the Plaza Mayor - Matt with the first of many empty glasses.

Matt and I slept in Duncan´s truck, which has a bunk bed in the cab -an entirely new experience for us that we were eager to try (and save €60 in the process by not needing a hotel room) and it turned out to be very comfortable. However, the sound of various truckers starting their engines at intervals in the early morning wasn't conducive to a good sleep, neither was having to get up in the middle of the night to relieve myself behind the truck (as Stephen King once wrote, ´beer is full of vitamin P´). Then, Duncan banged on the truck door at 7.30 the following morning and ordered us out of his cab so he could get his essential cargo of tin cans to their destination by midday. This was the earliest I'd woken up in a long time, but I coped with the shock surprisingly well - for me at least - and managed to greet Duncan with a bright "morning!" instead of my more usual grunts of annoyance at having been woken up way too early.


The best part of the trip was the drive back. We'd hastily driven down there on the motorway, but on the return journey we took our time with a leisurely drive over the mountains.



Heading back home, towards the mountains.

I´d been in that part of Spain before, but what struck me after having been here in Asturias for so long, was the openess of the countryside (and the clear blue of the sky after suffering a week of rain here). You could literally see for miles, to the hazy, blue-grey peaks in the distance. As we approached the mountains, the landscape gradually changed, but it was constantly beautiful. We passed so many picturesque villages and hamlets tucked away in the hills under cloud-free skies, that I frequently exclaimed "ooh, wouldn´t I like to live here!" and if the rain carries on here in Asturias as it has this summer I may just go and do that.


At about 1,600m, just before crossing into Asturias.

Going over the Tarna pass into Asturias we were expecting more clouds and rain, but it seemed the good weather had followed us back and we drove down the mountains on the other side in sunshine.

Taken from near the Tarna Pass - we love stopping up here and taking in the view across the Parque Natural de Redes. Not only does it look good, but the air is clean and fresh and filled with the smell of heather and other vegetation.There was no-one else up there with us. I could've stayed the whole day if I'd had a picnic and no work to go to.

It was only when we got near El Entrego that the clouds appeared again, and by the time I had showered and scoffed a quick lunch the rain was falling once more. Matt happily announced that he was going for a siesta and left me to drive sleepily down the hill to work.