Tapp's Travels

It’s been a while since we were last in Spain  All of two weeks!  Time spent getting ready to have the house painted and getting the automatic watering system up and running,  There were a couple of covid boosters to be had, oh, and the caravan had to be checked over and packed.

The day before we were due to sail, we got a message from Brittany Ferries.  The Pont Aven was having some “technical problems”.  Sounds familiar!  However, it transpired that the problems related to the projector in the cinema.  So that’s OK!

On the morning of the day of sailing –  Sunday – it poured with rain.  Not a good omen.

We had booked Sunday lunch at one of our favourite restaurants in Paignton.  “Insurance” in case the crossing was too rough for both of us to enjoy eating dinner on board.  And that turned out to be a good decision.  Having arrived at the port with two hours to spare we.sped through the loading process almost without touching the sides.  We could even see the front doors a few vehicles ahead.

The crossing was, as predicted, significantly bumpy.  But we had eaten and we had a lovely cabin.  So all was well.  Well, perhaps “well” was a slight exaggeration!

However there was a gorgeous sunset, hopefully a good omen!

A few hours before landing in Santander, there was a talk about all.the whales and dolphins that could (theoretically) be seen in the Bay of Biscay.  Of the 94 species known world-wide, 30 have been recorded in the Bay.  All to do with very deep water (up to a maximum of 4,500 m deep), a diverse habitat, a lack of heavy maritime traffic, and the cetaceans’ propensity for long-distance travelling.  We were given a number of interesting (to me at least!) facts:

1  Whale babies are born in the breech position so that their blow hole is last out.

2.  Friends and family support the tiddler (about the size of a VW Beetle!) out of the water for the first five minutes while it reads the manual about not trying to breathe while submerged.

3.  Porpoises don’t porpoise – that’s dolphins.

4.  Dolphins shed their whole epidermis six times a day.  Humans do it only about once every six days.

5.  Sperm Whales can dive to more than two km deep for over an hour.  They reduce their heart beat to once per minute.  They “switch off” everything but their brain and heart.  Then they go into battle with their favourite food – the giant squid.  In these fights the whales have an approximate success rate of 50:50!

6.   Killer Whales and Pilot.Whales are actually “dolphins”!

7.  The largest whales can “ping” at up to 220 decibels?  For comparison,  that is the sound level recorded very close to a Saturn V rocket during launch.  This is said to be loud enough to melt concrete – just from the sound.

8.  There were 150 other facts!

As usual, there appeared to be no checks on the import of dairy products and meats on arrival in Santander.  We could have brought a pint or two of milk and some sausages!  Even though we aren’t really supposed to!  It’s about time we stopped Europeans coming to the UK with all sorts of fancy food-stuffs!  Or, controversially, how about an agreement allowing two way traffic of butter, eggs and milk?

After a lot of discussion, which had started two weeks ago and continued up until we disembarked the ferry, we decided to head for Oyambre about 50 kms to the West.  We had visited a number of years ago, but recently had settled on their sister site just East of Comillas.  This site, if you are lucky enough to secure a site at the front of one of their “ledges” allows lovely views.  We were, and we did.  We have a view of the snow-capped Picos Mountains further to the West.  The view from our window …

A ten minute walk out of the back of the site gets us to Oyambre Beach.

We have walked the full length of this spectacularly under-populated stretch of sand several times.  It’s easily hits our three-mile-a-day walking target.

Near the Western end of the beach there is a memorial statue standing on top of a low cliff.

My Spanish stops short of discussions of Yellow Canaries.  Well short!  So I took note of the date on the memorial 14 June 1929 and retreated to Mr Google.

Nobody had foreseen that one of the first transatlantic flight between the United States and France would, in fact, end in Spain. It was only a random chance that forced Yellow Bird (L’Oiseau Canari, in its original French name) to make an emergency landing at Oyambre beach on June 14, 1929, at 8.40 pm.

The full story is a long one, but the critical bit is that a random guy (Jean Assollant) stowed away on board as the plane prepared to take off.  Already with a critically reduced fuel load, the additional weight of the intruder meant that the flight had no chance of reaching Paris.

L’Oiseau Blanc (The White Bird) was a French biplane that disappeared in 1927 during an attempt to make the first non-stop transatlantic flight from Paris and New York City.  But that’s another story!  And nothing to do with Oyambre!

One day we decided to head inland to Ruente and Cabuerniga and to the tiny settlement of Valle.  The Taberna de Valle has been one of our favourite haunts for some years.  However, it has now been upgraded and the menu del dia has been discontinued.  Still we enjoyed a rather raucous lunch with, variously between one and six Spaniards on the adjacent table.  They saw us sharing all our courses and not drinking wine.  They decided to take pity on a couple of poor Brits and kept pouring us wine.  All communication was via the waiter who spoke a bit of pigeon French, as do we.

Then, for a bit of peace and quiet, we walked three miles along winding farm tracks in the valley before heading back to base.

The next day we went to sample the extensive, free car parking (10 m from the sand) at Comillas.  We walked around the headland.  The Department of Hispanic Studies, part of the University of Cantabria, can be seen on the hill in the background.

To the tiny fishing port …

… and along the beach to the far end.

Accessible, warm, sunny, almost deserted, free car-parking (until June).  Just like the UK!

By this time it’s Friday.  Time to think about reserving somewhere nice for Sunday lunch.  Some things just have to be done ahead of time!  We checked out three options and settled on El Remedio.  On a hill-top just to the East of Comillas.

But that and our close encounter with Elvis and his friends will have to wait.