Friday 5th May 2025.
We headed here for our overnight stop as we aren’t far from Santander and we needed to visit a vet to get Layla’s Pet Passport completed which we managed this afternoon at a cost of €40.
We stopped for lunch a short way before Comillas, as I found a large parking area with views down below of San Vincente de la Barquera, it looked good from above and as we drove through later it looked a good place to stop.
I spoke with some passion in yesterdays blog about the wonderful drive over the mountains into Potes, well today’s drive I would need to use phrases like buttock clenching, breathing in, tucking in the elbows and at times closing your eyes.
We took the N621 out of Potes heading for the coast, and intended to stay on it for approx 30km estimated time of travel 36 minutes, however what we didn’t know was that this road has been under reconstruction for about 6 years as it has slowly been slipping into the fast running river that’s runs alongside. In some areas slightly more than 50% of the road has disappeared into the river. Workmen are working on different sections possibly tackling the worst places first, this means for quite a distance the road is down to only one very narrow lane and contra flow was in place, we had to stop and wait about 5 times for up to 15 minutes for the road to clear. Then the fun began.
I only saw a piece of tarmac in front of me as we drove ( in some places there wasn’t any tarmac at all) my eyes swivelled back and forth to the wing mirrors as I tried to gauge the distance between us and the rock face and the concrete blocks placed to keep workmen safe. Michelle took these photos as we went along and as good as they are they can’t do justice to how difficult it was at times. We went along the road following 2 other motorhomes and I winced at times to how close one kept getting. to the rock face.
They are rebuilding the road by pile driving hundreds of steel tubes into the ground, then building out concrete buttresses over the river, then preformed concrete pads are placed on top and a 30cm layer of concrete over that before tarmac is laid. This means that the road is now much wider but one lane hangs over the river . It’s amazing what you can learn when you are sitting there for ages.
The wire netting in the top right photo was all along the road catching large boulders from above.
On reflection I think I may give it another 5 years before I think of travelling this way again, the areas they have completed are superb buts there’s a lot to go yet.
taraabit 