Day 124 - Lost and Found (but mostly Lost)

Thursday 15th November 2018On the evening of Wednesday 14th we found ourselves a great wild camp at the end of the road beyond the small town of Sonabia on the Cantabrian coast of Northern Spain. Gandalf rested his weary tyres on a spit of land above the sea, beneath a great looking 400 metre (ish) mountain. And so to bed... zzzzzzz!At about midnight the winds picked up and, if you read my post from day 121 you will already know the drill. Close the pop-top, open up bed 'downstairs', fail to sleep well.In the morning, despite sleep deprivation, we decide to take a stroll up the mountain we are parked under. We don't know the name of the mountain, we have no map and no idea if there is actually a path to the top. Our final summit of the trip though. Too good a chance to miss right?Mrs P to Mr P: "Just a few hours right?"Mr P: "Yup. Easy day."Ah, famous last words.We start by dropping down to cross the beach before... wait, what's this? A nudist beach! "Avert your eyes Mrs P. Avert them I say!"It turns out there is a path to the 470 metre (1,542 feet) mountain that may (or may not) be called Cima Solpico. It is in fact well marked. So well marked in places that only the terminally stupid could go wrong.We lunch next to a geological wonder called Ojos del Diablo (Eyes of the devil). Two large holes in the rock. Though with one being much bigger than the other it seems that the Devil may have some sort of astigmatism. Maybe that explains why he always seems so cross.Above us, a dozen or more endangered griffon vultures, with wingspans of up to 2.8 metres, circle lazily. I think they have their eye on Mrs P. She's looking pale since the weather stopped her wearing shorts. If we don't move soon she may be the endangered one.There are some bits where we decide to ignore the path......and some odd sections that make it look like we are ignoring the path......and there were occasions when we thought a wrong turn had landed us in a sunny North Wales...but we did find a summit...Shortly after this shot was taken however we were forced to ponder a bit of a dilemma. With no map and unwilling to retrace our footsteps we spent a little time discussing our next move.After a bit of Googling we decide to carry blindly on basing any geographical accuracy on a poor photo of a map we found on line. The theory is that we should pop out near to the main toll road that runs along the coast. It is then an easy 3km along the road back to Gandalf.This theory is sound and we arrive at the road after about 40 minutes.What is less clear is how to negotiate said 6 lane toll road to get back to the road and thence on to the loving arms of Gandalf.Pathfinder Mr P to the rescue: "If we follow this cow trail round the hillside we will eventually find the cows. They are bound to be near the road."Mrs P: "You mean this muddy cow trail through the dense, face high bracken, brambles and bushes, up to our knees in muck? Are you serious?"Pathfinder Mr P: "Trust me. I know what I am doing."Eventually the disgraced Pathfinder leads a rather muddy, scratched and unimpressed Mrs P back to the side of the road.A 10 minute wander down a road that could have been found relatively quickly had it not been for a certain persons enthusiasm for bushwhacking, sees our not so merry band back on course.Our short walk ultimately takes us almost 7 hours and we decide to spend another night at our new found wild campsite rather than go looking for a proper campsite (with proper showers and a toilet).It was a lovely spot but, guess what...

At about 2am the winds picked up and, if you read my post from day 121 (and paragraph 2 above) you will already know the drill. Close the pop-top, open up bed 'downstairs', fail to sleep well.

AGAIN!