The ferry ride was nice and relaxing. Despite the weather on sea being very foggy it was still warm and I was contemplating sleeping on deck.

I had booked the cheapest ticket which is just a seat like you get on an airplane. But when I saw that I had actually gotten a first row seat with space in front of me I decided to just sleep in my row ­ on – the floor. Most of the people in the room followed my example and made camp on the floor of each row since the seats tickets were not even a third booked unlike the more expensive cabins. I didn’t sleep much but I hadn’t expected I would.
In the morning we were all asked to get to our vehicles and disembark the ship. After a quick and smooth passport check a stream of bikes was swarming away from the port.
The cars had already left and the lorries would still take their sweet time.

Where to go first when you are in Spain for the first time? Right, the petrol station of course. To my surprise it was not self service. But apparently that one Shell station was just an exception.

Finally I went to the nearest playa/beach. (Look how good my Spanish is!) The water was very clean and the beach not crowded which both surprised me to be honest. Somehow I was expecting Adria like beaches.

I didn’t go for a swim yet but just took a little break. I still hadn’t decided weather to continue clockwise or counter clockwise through Spain. But the heat made that decision easy for me. This is the North and I was already a bit uncomfortable wearing ATGATT. Though it’s only uncomfortable when off the bike. Riding with the stream of air it’s still very nice once you have accepted that this is how it is from now on ;). Since temparatures ar only getting higher especially in the south I decided to cover the south first.

To finish the day I was cruising around through the little roads avoiding the motorways which btw are really a joy to ride because they are in great shape and lead throuh nice valleys and hills. But I wanted to see the little villages. After a few hours I hit the first big city, Bilbao but didn’t want to take the time to stop much because I will get there again when I come back anyway. I just quickly took a look around the Guggenheim Museum and on I went.

It was getting darker and darker and I didn’t have a campsite yet. I could have gone to a proper campsite paying 30 Euros but I want to do wild camping where possible. So I continued on the little roads checking out all the little paths on the sides and finally at 11pm I found a litle place up a dusty path. Setting up the tent in the darkness was a new experience. I had positioned my bike so that I could illuminate my spot with the headlights but I didn’t want to turn the lights on to avoid attracting all the bugs.

My camp in the morning:

From here I will go straight to the shouth.