The supermercado was still closed when we left at 10:30 but the panaderia was open for bread. It was a long uphill climb to Puerto de Panderruedas at 1459m, where we stopped for lunch at the summit picnic benches. Then it was downhill into a cold headwind, we had to stop to put cagoules and gloves on through the narrow Garganta de Sello. The gorge was so deep and narrow that we couldn’t see the river. The wind saved on brake wear but we had to work hard when the road levelled out. I was quite exhausted when we reached Cangas de Onis at 16:30.
Cangas is a small but busy town with an interesting “Roman” bridge which is actually mediaeval. The campsite on the edge of town didn’t open until June, Christine wasn’t keen on staying in the town so we headed out to see what we could find, hoping that perhaps we could stay at the campsite. Someone was working there but our sorrowful looks made no impression on him, told us the next site was 12km away. Since tomorrow’s plan was to ride up to Covadonga, that would have meant cycling the same 12km back in the morning. This did not appeal, but we had food for dinner so a campsite was really what we needed.
After a few more kilometres we came across Pandesiertos, a really nice Casa Rural whose friendly owner let us cook our dinner in the garden and eat on their picnic benches in the warm evening sunshine.