Picos and Portugal

We are off to the Picos in May following the 4 day route in ride magazine as a starting point. However we get back into Santander on the Friday and our ferry doesn't sail until 20.30 on the Saturday so I was thinking of adding an additional days riding and nipping down over the border into Portugal and camping in the Parque Natuarl de Montesinho. Has anyone been down there? Is it worth the trip? If so can anyone recommend some good roads down or in the park itself. Off road or otherwise. Thinking of heading down from Luarca in Spain to the park one day then heading back to Leon the next and resuming the route. Or would I just be better staying North and adding additional mileage up there. I do quite like the idea of visiting another country though even if it is only fleetingly..
Cheers
Dave

There is excellent riding around there. The N103 from Chaves to Braganca is pretty special, with the leg of it that returns to Spain (where it becomes the ZA925 to Puebla de Sanabria) is epic. I'd suggest modifying the routes to go Luarca to Chaves and Chaves to Leon - though you could shorten or extend the Chaves to Leon leg easily.

Your other alternative is to stop two nights at Luarca and do one of the daytrips planned around there - they're set up to run the roads that are also used in the touring route in the other direction, so the rides feel different.

Nice one, thanks for the info Simon. Much appreciated. A quick dip into Portugal it is.
Cheers
Dave

Simon W said:

The N103 from Chaves to Braganca is pretty special

Click to expand...

Absolutely
The bakery / cake shop in Rebordelo, almost half way between the two, is well worth a stop for a Pastel de Nata or other custardy delight


And the castle in Braganca is a good spot to while away an hour or two :
Untitled by Jochen Riehn, on Flickr