Spain its wildlife and culture 8th May to ? 2012

Portsmouth to Santander and the Asturian Coastline.

We had good 24hr crossing from Portsmouth to Santander watching pods of common dolphin en route. Sighting wild  Dolphins always lifts me they emit a sense of freedom and zest for life and spirit as they so easily glide through the air and back I to the water. We saw them in the Bay of Biscay which because it's on the continental shelf where it suddenly drops away is a superb place for cetacean sightings. We chatted with a fellow binocular clad passenger Matthew Horsfall ( approx 26yrs) whose father had photographed a breaching Sperm Whale on a previous trip. In fact his father is Chris Gomersall who won the wildlife photographer of the year competition in 1983 with a photo of a jumping spider. Matthew was passionate about south America and enthused us further about our planned trip to chile Peru etc with his stories of the teeming wildlife. He left our ship Pont Aven ( same as we used for our recent trip to St Malo) to cycle to his parents who live in the French Pyrenees coincidentally near our friends Pat Carolyn Phil & Ruth who we are visiting en route home.  From Santander we drove west along the beautiful Atlantic coastline of Asturias in stunning evening weather parking on the shoreline at a peaceful medieval town of Camillos where we decided to enjoy a wonderful meal of sardines at the Gurea Restaurant recommended in the LPlanet. As we approached the coast we had great views of the magnificent snow clad Picos De Europa mtns which form part of the Cantabrian Range. We head I to the mountains searching for bear and wolf tomorrow.