Road Trip Part 2: El Cabo

So here we go with Part 2 of the Great Northern Road Trip, picking up where Part 1 left off! Me and Kevin had just had a quiet evening after a busy day wandering around an abandoned factory, so it was time for us to get up early and head off to the coast to explore el cabo, or “the cape”, an outcrop of land hosting what I was told would be a few rather beautiful sites. After swinging by my beloved Mercadona (a supermarket chain here) for a big bag of cherries, we hopped in the car and headed northwards, with me throwing cherry pips into the bushes as we sped along.

After getting a little lost along the way, we arrived at out first destination, el Faro de Cabo Peñas. Faro being Spanish for lighthouse meant that I was expecting a lighthouse, and indeed their was one, but it wasn’t particularly pretty next to a modern radar tower, so we headed down to the cliffs to see what we could see down by the water.

Once I’d found a jut of land which was sticking out into the sea, I decided that I wanted to risk life and limb in clambering out to explore its tip. Kevin (rather sensibly) decided to stay behind a little bit, as in the end I wound up getting rather lost and stuck in some bushes, upon which I decided that the views weren’t that much different from the safety of the shoreline, and so made my retreat.

Once we’d had a coffee to refuel in a little coastal bar, we headed a little further along the way, stopping when I noticed an old industrial looking structure. On further instruction it looked like it held a series of siren horns, and we speculated that, with the cape being a strategic position, it may have heralded from the civil war era. I haven’t been able to find much about them online, so if I ever do I’ll come back to this post and drop that in.

Eventually the two of us became quite tired, and so we abandoned a plan we’d had to walk further along the coast and to a neighboring town. Turning back, we hopped back in the car and made our way to our next destination, another small town along the coast called Luanco.

Luanco proved to be yet another gorgeous location in the running series of pretty Asturian coast locations which Kevin has taken me to (with the last one being Ribadesella.) The buildings, as you’ll have noticed, were adorned with quaint colourful patterns, and the gently sloping streets lead to floral plazas and plenty of spaces to sit and take in the sea views.

Eventually we found our way to the town’s little beach, and took a peaceful stroll down the front, chatting away about all kind of nonsense like we usually do. Once we’d reached the end of said promenade, we turned back and headed back to the car, for we still had one place more to visit before the end of the day.

The next little coastal stop along the way was Candás, a town which sits just north of Gijón. Here, and after a small nightmare trying to find somewhere to park, we were greeted with a street festival which was in full swing. Snooping around the various cheeses, bakes, natural ciders and artesanal wares, we slowly dropped down towards the docks, stopping for a fresh cojito (like a coconut macaroon, literally meaning “little coconut”).

Soon we’d perched ourselves on the sea wall which separated the open ocean from the docked boats, and the sun began to set. This created a rather spectacular display, as the warm light of the setting sun illuminated a formation of clouds which had clumped together in the distance, making it look as though the apocalypse was upon us!

Once the sun had fully dropped beyond the horizon and the cold began to set in, we headed back through Candás and hopped in the car back to Oviedo. That night we’d planned to go out for drinks with a Andrei and Andre, but had decided to keep it chilled and early as we had plans to go out and explore Cantabria the day after – but as you can imagine, in the end that didn’t quite go to plan. After a couple of quiet drinks in a neighbourhood bar, we noticed a German-style beer festival was picking up momentum in a tent nearby, and so we went to investigate.

After my initial doubts about it, due to having been to a real German beer festival in the past, I soon downed myself a pint of rather strong beer found myself happily singing away to all the cheesy Spanish music that they’d put on. Quite a way from the real thing, but a lot of good fun nonetheless!

Needless to say that Kevin and I were a little worse for wear the next morning, and so our plans to explore Cantabria were a little decimated. Kevin whipped up a delicious hangover lunch of fried chicken with chips and egg –completely from scratch I might add– and by 5 o’clock we had to pack our bags and jump back in the car ready for Part 3 of our journey, which you can check out here. Check out Part 1 too if you haven’t already.