Guess what? Another day in the
valley socked in with low hanging clouds and light rain, as if we needed more
moisture in the valley. Sleeping in quite late is becoming quite a habit!
After a light breakfast, we did a
small load of laundry and placed the items on the mobile drying rack which we
sat next to one of the radiators for extra drying support.
We met the Murrays outside the
Posada at 1115 and headed to the Tourist Office at Bertiz, which is a lovely
National Park right at the turnoff to the Valle for maps and brochures for the village that
the Murrays will visit Friday through Sunday. They will stay next to the Bilbao
airport at a Holiday Inn Express on Monday before their Tuesday flight to
Gatwick.
Today was not a day for a walk in
the forest, beautiful as it is, so after the Tourist Office Paul steered us
towards Santestaban further down in the valley. We ended up on the NA -4130 and
stayed on it all the way up and over the mountains almost to Tolosa and then
San Sebastian. It was a gorgeous drive with soaring granite by the road and
deep valleys on the other side. Autumn has not yet come here, though a few
trees are starting to turn color. It is quite unspoiled with very few houses,
and the ones that there are, are high on the mountain side with views to
forever! We speculated about accessing the houses in winter as the driveways
are so steep! Villages are a few houses at most and miles apart. Oddly enough
neither Paul nor David had taken this road before. It is quite remote and who
knows what it was like nearly 50 years ago. The road to San Sebastian was well
travelled back in the day and quite hairy enough even for these young crazy
guys!
After negotiating around San Seb
and past Martutene and the port we got back onto the N 121 towards Pamplona.
Who needs the new -fangled motorways? Not us! We are going back on the old
road, the one we travelled so many years ago! Actually, it bears no resemblance
to the old road, it is wider, there are tunnels and all the villages we used to
slow down to drive through have been bypassed, but still, it feels familiar!
Little bit of history here, though I don’t have the dates to hand, this is very
close to the French border and back when Wellington was helping the Spanish
drive Napoleon and the French out of Spain, this was quite a battleground,
though with the mountains all around, it must have been more like guerrilla
warfare.
We stopped for lunch at Etxalar on the normal
highway back to the Baztan and we all enjoyed a menu of the day which was
excellent. Paul and I stopped here often back in the early ‘70s. It was very
grand to us and we loved it. It hasn’t changed too much but more popular now.
As we were leaving again, Paul,
Mr Eagle eye, noticed that the left rear tire appeared to have a flat head
screw embedded. Now where can we find a garage to have it extracted and patched?
We made it to Elizondo and found a garage (Michelin) to get it fixed. The
mechanic was actually Portugese, had worked in Netherlands and other places,
came to visit the Baztan and said that’s it! I’m staying! He took off the tire,
pulled out the screw and patched the tire in no time flat (actually it was 10
minutes total elapsed time!) and 12 Euros!
I am writing during rest time,
otherwise known as siesta and there may be more to add. I don’t know. I am
worded out!
Thursday evening we walked to the
Posada and Belen fixed an excellent spread of tapas etc. which was consumed by
all concerned. At 1030 it was time to good night and venture back to the
apartment another fine day in the Baztan. Good night all!!!!
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