Finally I've made it back to the blog, I was away longer than I meant to be.
Going back in time to Friday 14th March and another Friday excursion.
This time we went to the Balcon de Pilatos in the Urbasa Natural Park which is in Navarre, a region adjoining The Basque Country. I can't say exactly how far it is from Azpeitia, nor how long it took us to get there, because we had a few stops and starts and missed turn-offs and such like along the way.
The country side that we drove through is quite different than The Basque Country and Zaragoza. It is a landscape of huge rocky outcrops, mountains in the background, wide green valleys with villages dotted throughout like mushrooms. Here's some photos which will be better than my descriptions.
It was another fabulous warm, blue sky and sunshine day
The Pyrenees in the background
Looking down from the village where we parked the car and then walked through the park to the waterfall
We walked for 21/2 - 3 hours wandering along beside a stream, or maybe it's actually a small river. At times it was small and other times it was quite a bit bigger, it's not important in the long run. Suffice to say that it was pretty damn wonderful wandering along with the ever present sound of the river tumbling down (we were always walking uphill which was, fortunately, a gentle slope) with the warm sun shining through the leafless trees. It was really great stress-free exercise for my body and the mixture of Basque, Spanish and English languages provided exercise for my brain.
Most of the time the track was easy going, certainly different than the NZ bush
In some places it was quite wet and boggy which provided us with a bit of fun as we negotiated ways around the bog.
sometimes the track wasn't quite so easy
This is the best I could get of the big waterfall because there wasn't a clear view of it, always there were enormous rocks or trees in the way and the water didn't just fall a long way. Instead there was a series of drops and twists for quite a long way. We couldn't get to the top of it because the track was closed.
the top of the cliffs is the Balcon de Pilates
the park boundary on our way back to the car
same place looking down the valley
After we got back to the car we went back to where we'd had lunch for a beer feeling happy with our day so far, mostly because we thought we'd had a good lot of exercise. Miren is a regular 'walker', I had done a few decent walks but Nerea is not an 'exercise' person.
We still,hadn't been to 'The Balcon' and Miren was determined that we'd find it so off we went on a search. We drove up to the top of the cliffs and then stopped to read every sign post we came to, with no luck. Turns out to be the least sign posted spot ANYWHERE - there wasn't one! Finally Miren had a guess and parked the car and off we went on foot. We spied a farmer walking along in a distant paddock so off went Miren to ask for directions and hopefully we weren't far from the spot. Yes! we were in luck - just a little further and we were on the edge looking down at where we'd been walking. Well, that's not quite right - Miren was on the edger while Nerea implored her to come back and I held my breath hoping she'd get back from the edge - 900 meters down is too far to bounce back from.
She did and we finally set off on our way back to Azpeitia. By the time we got out of the car and walked it was dusk and the setting sun was the brightest red sunsetI have ever seen. Unfortunately, the photo doesn't quite do it justice.
looking at us as we walked to the edge of the cliff
from as close as I got to the edge of The Balcon de Pilatos
The landscape at the top. A few weeks before this was covered in snow
The moon in the clear, clear sunset sky
It's a shame that it was dusk and therefore rather murky because the view from here shows villages along the valley just like mushrooms dating back to times when people walked.
And another day done, by the time we got back to the car it was truly dark, and we set off to Azpeitia feeling very happy with it.
On the Sunday following this Friday I had a day with Mirari, one of the teachers who I work with. She lives in the nearby village of Zestoa, 10 minutes drive from Azpeitia on the way to San Sebastian. She picked me up and after coffee in Azpeitia we went to her place and then to the tiny coastal village of Getaria, which I've talked about before. It was another fabulous blue sky, warm sunshine day and we walked along the coastal walkway for a bit and then walked back to Getaria and wandered about for a bit. A lot of the railing and paving is missing - taken by the huge seas during recent storms nd extraordinary high tides which caused quote a lot of destruction all along the coast.
this pathway is from the main street to the port and has been here since the 2nd century BC, well, at first it wasn't paved.
Sunday market at the port
and then we had a glass of wine overlooking the port while we soaked up the sun and chatted.
After our glass of wine we went back to Mirari's home in Zestoa for lunch. Yes, the usual 3 course meal accompanied with some lovely chardonnay and chatted away the afternoon until almost 6pm by which time it was time to call it a day and so I was delivered back to Azpeitia.
And that was the end of another great weekend.
And now Barry has returned - he arrived on Saturday, late afternoon. It is lovely to have him back.
We now have to get cracking on sorting out our travel plans for the Easter holidays which begin on Friday week for me and I have 3 weeks and 2 days so we have a bit of planning and organising to do.
The dilemma is - where we will go and where to leave out. So much to see and do all fairly much on my doorstep. Never did I think I'd have such a dilemma! The one certain thing is that we are meeting Emma and Sam in Amsterdam the weekend after Easter and we'll have such fun exploring and enjoying each other's company for 5 nights and 4 days. Wo hoooooo
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