{"id":6188,"date":"2025-06-10T12:56:14","date_gmt":"2025-06-10T12:56:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/?p=6188"},"modified":"2025-12-24T21:50:53","modified_gmt":"2025-12-24T21:50:53","slug":"3-the-road-to-nowhere-fast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/?p=6188","title":{"rendered":"3. THE ROAD TO NOWHERE FAST!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Well, not exactly nowhere, but the road is certainly a slow one!\u00a0 We have decided to get a bit more “close and personal” with the high ground to the south.\u00a0 The Picos de Europa.\u00a0 Covering some 500 km\u00b2, the peaks reach about 2,650 m.\u00a0 (Strictly speaking, the Torre de Cerredo reaches 2,649 m.)\u00a0 Situated approximately 30 km from the sea, the range extends about 40 km east to west.\u00a0 The main town of the area is Potes – and that’s where we are heading.<\/p>\n

The last time we visited, the road from Unquera was terrible.\u00a0 It followed the River Deva, which forms the border between Cantabria and Asturias for part of it’s length.\u00a0 The road kept hopping from one province to the other and back again.\u00a0 Probably originally built by the Astures so they could get their oysters and octopus delivered from the coast.\u00a0 Every bridge required a lot of concentration.\u00a0 Two instant right angle bends onto and off each narrow bridge.\u00a0 Over-hanging rocky outcrops threatened to take the car’s roof off.\u00a0 Rocky ledges protruding into the carriageway at random intervals just waiting to dent a door or two.<\/p>\n

In the wider sections, there was “easily” room for two cars to pass.\u00a0 A car and a truck – possible at slower speed.\u00a0 Two trucks meeting caused an instant traffic jam!\u00a0 The trip took ages.\u00a0 Three years later, the road is undergoing massive improvements.\u00a0 The river side of the original road is being removed and replaced (in a widened format) on a more or less continuous, overhanging, cantilevered structure.\u00a0 This requires a lot of the old, narrow road being removed, a great deal of drilling and piling, millions of tonnes of, reinforced concrete laid and a top coat of asphalt added – for a distance of about 17.2 km!<\/p>\n

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Here’s a section ready for concreting.\u00a0 Luckily, we won’t be here tomorrow!<\/p>\n

We hadn’t even got into the really narrow section before we joined a communal picnic while a mixer lorry load of concrete was laid.\u00a0 That stopped us in our tracks for at least 20 minutes, but some at the front of the queue had their deck chairs out, sunbathing.\u00a0 They had been there a lot longer than us!<\/p>\n

Work is in progress at eight or nine sections of variable length ranging from a few hundred metres to maybe a kilometre.\u00a0 Each of these is reduced from two narrow lanes to one.\u00a0 In between, on the better parts of the old road, the two narrow lanes remain operational.\u00a0 It is true to say there are stretches of “proper” road where works have been completed.\u00a0 (The first two sections – about one km in total – were completed in 2023.)\u00a0 These are adequately wide and straight(ish).\u00a0 With smooth road surface, painted lines and barriers to keep us out of the river.\u00a0 Presumably they are tackling the worst bits first!\u00a0 But guess what, the Spaniards must have visited Australia to observe their traffic control systems.\u00a0 However, they have adopted a different form of roadworks etiquette.\u00a0 Posted at each end of the “active” section they have a man with a radio and a stop sign (and a car in case of inclement weather!).\u00a0 But no “go” or “go slow” signs!<\/p>\n

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So our progress is limited.\u00a0 Two narrow lanes with random rock protuberances.\u00a0 Stop for 10 minutes.\u00a0 Go really slow past all the workmen on a narrow single track section before stumbling back onto the two narrow lanes.\u00a0 To be fair, as I said, there were a few sections where the improvements have been completed.\u00a0 Here it was possible to get up to 50 kph (briefly).<\/p>\n

We decided to make a deviation.\u00a0 There is (allegedly) a restaurant in the hills off the road to the right.\u00a0 Just beyond a village called San Estoban.\u00a0 The village is only about four kilometres from the main road.\u00a0 Excellent.\u00a0 We will get lunch and think about not visiting Potes.\u00a0 We managed three hairpin bends in the first 200 m of TRULY single lane road with no passing places and no barriers at all.\u00a0 Going up we would at least be on the “inside” of the road, but the return trip would have been truly horrible if we met anything bigger than a rabbit.\u00a0 So, about turn in a tiny space and back down to the “motorway”.\u00a0 Just time for a photo …<\/p>\n

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Later, back on the N-621, we stopped at La Hermida for a coffee and a couple of (medicinal) brandies!<\/p>\n

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The traffic through the village was really odd.\u00a0 Nothing for ten minutes, then a pulse of maybe 20 cars and 200 motorbikes.\u00a0 Then nothing followed by a batch of vehicles going the other way.\u00a0 And that white line joining the two peaks in the photo above is not a vapour trail – it’s a ladder!!!<\/p>\n

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In the original photo, it’s also just possible to make out a horizontal bridge and safety wire below (between the little bush on the left and the dark patch on the right.\u00a0 This would be the access route to the ladder!)\u00a0 We are talking serious via ferrata stuff here.\u00a0 This particular route extends for 3.7 km and has 370 m of climb.\u00a0 Not for me.\u00a0 I’m enjoying the drive up the valley immensely all of a sudden!\u00a0 Road works?\u00a0 What road works?<\/p>\n

The whole road improvement project is truly a pharaonic undertaking involving hundreds of workers.\u00a0 The road is going to be “fabulous” when completed.\u00a0 Until then, don’t forget to pack a drink, lunch and possibly a porta potty!\u00a0 Luckily, the Spanish eat lunch really late.\u00a0 We got ours in Potes at about 3.30 pm.\u00a0 And this was our view from the restaurant.\u00a0 Looking upstream …<\/p>\n

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… and down later.<\/p>\n

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We just had time to check out one of the local campsites.\u00a0 Jammed!\u00a0 With everyone trying to work out how best to get back to the coast!\u00a0 “Oh hell, let’s just stay another week!”<\/p>\n

We made it back as all the workers were packing up.\u00a0 They were about to activate traffic lights to control the flow of vehicles.\u00a0 Good luck with that!\u00a0 We are out of here!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Well, not exactly nowhere, but the road is certainly a slow one!\u00a0 We have decided to get a bit more “close and personal” with the high ground to the south.\u00a0 The Picos de Europa.\u00a0 Covering some 500 km\u00b2, the peaks… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6188","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-spain-france"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6188","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6188"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6188\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6211,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6188\/revisions\/6211"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}