In the road we are ready for surprises from the weather, good ones or bad ones, or all in one. This is what happened when we drove off to reservoir Ebro, the weather caught us in its playful mood, sharing an abundance of fog, rain and wind with us.
Cantabria Province
As we spontaneously opted for Corconte to be our overnight stay, we spent the rest of our evening in the by-road restaurant Conchita, sipping warm tea and sharing a plate of "pulpo a la brasa".
Corconte
In the early morning I peeked out of the car, and seeing the fog coming down from the mountains, forced myself for a walk with my camera. Except for our drive-around the past evening, I had no idea of the place and neither had any plan of where to go and what to shoot, it was all based on spontaneity of the scene popping in front of my eyes.
I decided to wonder along the road in the western direction, my eyes looking sideways and around.
Not sure how long I walked but at some point my decision was to walk back towards the caravan parking and investigate the nearby views.
Scenes of rural life opened up just across the road from the parking. Sheep flock nipping grass by the haystack were not bothered by the fog at all. Horses, who were grazing just behind the parking, were periodically looking at me and my camera with curiosity .
These rural scenes filled me with a sense of tranquility and contemplation. All the simple and beautiful things are close by, within our reach.
The same day we headed for the Cantabrian coast, driving through the moody mountain weather.
Liencres
Playa de Arnia was the first coastal place where we arrived in the evening and it was on my list of places for quite a while. We stayed there sleeping in our car and in the morning the cloudy sunrise was awaiting me.
The daytime was spent on exploring the locations of nearby beaches and Liencres National Dunes park where I thought to come back in the early morning. Our next overnight stop was found in Cuchia, close to Playa de Los Caballos.
Cuchia
The coastline here seemed less explored but nonetheless offered spectacular views.
Nothing like realizing these surroundings when falling asleep and waking up.
Liencres
In the early morning we drove back to the viewpoint of Liencres National Dunes park. However, the view appeared to be very hazy.
We continued our way by the road through the pine forest and that's where the magic happened. I decided to get out of the car and ended up going up and down the road for the next good 40 minutes or so, capturing the forest in the atmospheric light.
The end of exploratory morning was begging for a heartfelt breakfast which we arranged at the dunes parking spot, surrounded by other numerous camper vans.
Lazy time in the sun, watching beginner surfers getting back on their boards over and over again, we slowly realised it was already a week spent on the road and every day was as spontaneous as the previous one.
Cabezon de la Sal
In the afternoon, once we had enough of sun, we headed into the place called Cabezon de la Sal hosting sequoia forest, once planted by Spaniards in the past century. It was planted with the idea in mind not to be dependent on raw materials from abroad but later became a Natural Heritage of the Cantabrian region.
Standing next to these giant sequoias makes us feel so small and insignificant, instantly reminding us where we come from.
Liencres
The coastline of Liencres was still not enough for us and after the walk in the redwood forest we returned to park for the next 2 nights by the Playa de Cerrias.
Cantabria continued to display a series of dramatic cloudy sunrises and unpredictable sunsets. In combination with the coastal rock formations of geological park Costa Quebrada it left us speechless.
Chasing sunset at Playa del Portio was something we couldn't miss either and after photographic mission we just stayed at the beach under the dark sky, listening to the sounds of the sea.
On our last morning in Liencres I got out of the car, still being sleepy, and went wondering around the village wearing my long lasting Reef flip flops.
For a moment it felt odd how rural life was neighbouring with all these coastal beauties.
Geometrical patterns of the village houses looked quite appealing as well.
San Vicente de La Barquera
Once again spontaneously our route evolved into the visit to the fishermen village San Vicente de La Barquera where we did our first laundry in the self-service laundromat.
It's a charming village with a beautiful haven, numerous seafood restaurants, lovely artisan shops and surfer beaches. After scouting around for some time, I chose the spot to shoot the townscape with a castle.
Had we chosen to stay for longer in this town, without a doubt we would have found more of picturesque spots but here our encounter with Cantabria was coming to an end and Asturias was calling.
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