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Our drive from Santiago de Compostela was through green hilly countryside and rugged mountain ranges before arriving at the coast near Castropol. The mist in the mountains was errie and we climbed quite high before reaching the coast at Ribadeo. We stopped in town for a late and very average lunch on a Saturday with the locals before driving the 20km to Pendarronda Playa where our apartment was located. Although we only had two nights here we packed in a lot of exploring with John heading out in the afternoon to check out the local beaches and the local port town of Tapia de casariego while Ann rested up
The coast was stunning and in some ways very much like Australia with yellow sandy beaches and streams running into the beaches as well as Boat harbours walled in and protected from the wild winter of the North Atlantic coast in the Bay of Biscay. Our wanderings took us to Castropol town where we had lunch in an amazing eclectic restaurant that was full of antique clocks, musical instruments, sowing and coffee machines and other interesting artefacts. We then went up into the mountains to Taramundi where we visited an old Mill museum that was really fascinating but it was the stunning mountain scenery that was the hit.
The mill works were fascinating with all kinds of progressions on show through the ages.
Back in Penarronda Playa we visited a number of beaches and had a swim at one only to be called out of the water by the life guards as it was too rough…se picture below, it was 6 inches of swell and no rips so go figure
We stayed ay a farm stay style of apartment where they served breakfast but not much else and it was a handy spot to get around
The highlight of this region is Cathedral beach with its amazing rock formations near Ribadeo. The waves have carved out caves from the limestone and there are caverns and arches all over the place which makes for an incredible experience that only happen at low tide and low swells.
The arches and recesses often run through tunnels and you can access inner bowls and sandy beaches in a maze of spaces.
It has an eerie other worldly feeling like something from start wars.
We dined at a local restaurant that was most amusing to say the least at a little fishing village called Rinlo, but the wine and octopus were excellent
on our way through to Cudillero we stopped in at Playa Frejulfe which was a grey sand beach near a big river mouth and it actually had a wave that was very average but ridable and in winter it has amazing surf here from the north west swells. The whole area is covered in lovely eucalypts which gave the whole vibe an Aussie feel. We then stopped in at Puerto de Vega for lunch and made our way through to Cudillero along the rugged hillside and over many many Viaducts on the Autoviva highway
