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Eight Leg: through Navarra back to the Pyrenees and France
Leaving the Bardenas area on Thursday 5/9 we turn North again to slowly return to the Pyrenees and eventually France. Just outside Arguedas we have coffee and cake in a local bar to celebrate Marga’s birthday. We’ll see whether we can dine out somewhere tonight.
The ‘blue route’ slowly takes us back North on a combination of back roads and easy pistes. At one point we notice many vultures in the air (must be a 100) coming our way and landing somewhere in front of us. We try to get closer and find some stable, next to which many vultures land and sit on a little hill top, and also on the roof of the stable. We can’t see exactly what is going on, but there must be some offal or dead animal there. It is impressive from how far off they notice there is something to be had here. Or are they fed here regularly, perhaps?
Slowly we come into a more mountainous area again, we take a break near some old pilgrim’s church and lodgings (totally dilapidated, now) and end up on Camping Iturbero in Lumbier. We have dinner in the camping restaurant for Marga’s birthday, but is is a bit awkward: we are the only diners there.
Next to us on the campsite is an older couple with an enormous and totally equipped off-road beast of a car: safari awning, roof tent, snorkel, winches fore and aft, radio-antennae, aggressive tyres, high-legged, names and blood types of the inhabitants marked on the doors, everything! All very white, very clean and obviously very new. Also to the couple, it seems: they take hours to set up camp and to break up again the next morning, all the time arguing loudly.
Friday 6/9 we start with a walk up the Foz de Lumbier, a local canyon with its own vulture population. It is a beautiful little canyon and an easy walk, following an old railway track through the canyon with a tunnel on the entrance and exit. At the exit is a nice little piece of ‘via ferrata’ to an old bridge, now collapsed.
That afternoon we set out for the last stretches of piste of the blue route, that will take us via Fabrica de Orbaitzeta to Seant-Jean-Pied-de-Port in France, where this route officially ends. And then, on the one-but-last stretch of piste, we wreck our left rear tyre… We notice it on the little stretch of normal road between Orbaitzeta and Fabrica de Orbaitzeta, from where the last piste is to take us across the border to France. sing!
Well, we have done so many bad pistes this trip on this set of tyres (which we have had since our Iceland trip in 2016 and were supposed to be renewed next season, anyway) that it is not so weird that one gives up. And we have our spare on the back, after all! But now comes the really shameful thing: with our gear, we can’t get our wheel nuts loose! We have a wrench of half a meter, Bart gets on it with his full weight of 75 kg, altogether producing some 365 Nm of torque, which should be enough, but no: no movement in any of the nuts… So, we called in for road assistance… We don’t feel very confident: a late Friday afternoon, South of Europe, weekend beginning, somewhere on a mountain top in the Pyrenees… But after some time, lo, here comes an enormous lorry with a mechanic who gets a wrench from his toolbox, tries it, than gets a bigger wrench, tries it, then an even bigger wrench still, and then an additional piece of pipe, and yes, off they come! Then, with his garage jack, the job is finished in 10 minutes. The spare wheel is on, and the wheel with the damaged tyre sits on the back of the van.
Now we need to think hard. It is Friday evening. Before Monday there is no way we can get the damaged tyre repaired. And without a spare we don’t want to venture onto the last stretch of piste, which is reputedly bad. It feels like defeat, but we decide not do any pistes until we have the tyre repaired, and confine ourselves to normal roads until then. Before, we had toyed with the idea to visit the Picos de Europa from here, before returning home. But where we can see ourselves discussing in French with French tyre shop staff about the repair, we don’t see ourselves do that in our non-existent Spanish in Spain. So we decide to weave our way to somewhere in the Bordeaux area over the weekend and try and find a tyre repair shop on Monday in Bordeaux, somewhere.
So, we descend from the mountain looking for a campsite, which we find in Ochagavia, on Camping Ozate. That night the wind gets very strong.
Saturday 7/9 we return to France via de Puerto de Larrau. A beautiful stretch of mountain road with great views and clear sight, thanks to the high wind and low temperature, which has dropped to some 10 degrees Celsius. On the pass we decide to make a little hike along the border crest to a nearby top. With knitted cap, gloves and windbreaker jacket on! Here one finds traces of recent history: little wooden pill boxes all along the crest where Guardia Civil soldiers guarded the border during the Basque ETA troubles.
It is weekend and beautiful weather, so we should have known… It gets very busy on these mountain passes! When we return from our walk, some men are building a party tent on the pass (not easy in the high winds..) preparing some fest, it seems. Going down, we find out what it is about: we encounter a bike race to the top, head on… The next pass, we run into herds of off-road fanatics of all sorts: mountain buggy’s, enduro motorbikes, jeeps, all racing up the mountain on various trial tracks, and down again, and hordes of onlookers, parked everywhere… We find the road we had planned to take is closed until 18:00 hrs, due to this festival. And then they will all return home again!
We decide to flee all this madness and return to the so much quieter Spain again by the first possibility. We end up on the campsite of Baztan. Pfew.
Sunday 8/9 we drive more or less straight to the dune area (what big dunes!) South-West of Bordeaux, partly on the péage. We find a beautiful camping spot on Camping Panorama du Pyla, right by the sea, with a beautiful view. Tomorrow, we will go looking for a tyre repair shop!
Leaving the Bardenas area on Thursday 5/9 we turn North again to slowly return to the Pyrenees and eventually France. Just outside Arguedas we have coffee and cake in a local bar to celebrate Marga’s birthday. We’ll see whether we can dine out somewhere tonight.
The ‘blue route’ slowly takes us back North on a combination of back roads and easy pistes. At one point we notice many vultures in the air (must be a 100) coming our way and landing somewhere in front of us. We try to get closer and find some stable, next to which many vultures land and sit on a little hill top, and also on the roof of the stable. We can’t see exactly what is going on, but there must be some offal or dead animal there. It is impressive from how far off they notice there is something to be had here. Or are they fed here regularly, perhaps?
Slowly we come into a more mountainous area again, we take a break near some old pilgrim’s church and lodgings (totally dilapidated, now) and end up on Camping Iturbero in Lumbier. We have dinner in the camping restaurant for Marga’s birthday, but is is a bit awkward: we are the only diners there.
Next to us on the campsite is an older couple with an enormous and totally equipped off-road beast of a car: safari awning, roof tent, snorkel, winches fore and aft, radio-antennae, aggressive tyres, high-legged, names and blood types of the inhabitants marked on the doors, everything! All very white, very clean and obviously very new. Also to the couple, it seems: they take hours to set up camp and to break up again the next morning, all the time arguing loudly.
Friday 6/9 we start with a walk up the Foz de Lumbier, a local canyon with its own vulture population. It is a beautiful little canyon and an easy walk, following an old railway track through the canyon with a tunnel on the entrance and exit. At the exit is a nice little piece of ‘via ferrata’ to an old bridge, now collapsed.
That afternoon we set out for the last stretches of piste of the blue route, that will take us via Fabrica de Orbaitzeta to Seant-Jean-Pied-de-Port in France, where this route officially ends. And then, on the one-but-last stretch of piste, we wreck our left rear tyre… We notice it on the little stretch of normal road between Orbaitzeta and Fabrica de Orbaitzeta, from where the last piste is to take us across the border to France. sing!
Well, we have done so many bad pistes this trip on this set of tyres (which we have had since our Iceland trip in 2016 and were supposed to be renewed next season, anyway) that it is not so weird that one gives up. And we have our spare on the back, after all! But now comes the really shameful thing: with our gear, we can’t get our wheel nuts loose! We have a wrench of half a meter, Bart gets on it with his full weight of 75 kg, altogether producing some 365 Nm of torque, which should be enough, but no: no movement in any of the nuts… So, we called in for road assistance… We don’t feel very confident: a late Friday afternoon, South of Europe, weekend beginning, somewhere on a mountain top in the Pyrenees… But after some time, lo, here comes an enormous lorry with a mechanic who gets a wrench from his toolbox, tries it, than gets a bigger wrench, tries it, then an even bigger wrench still, and then an additional piece of pipe, and yes, off they come! Then, with his garage jack, the job is finished in 10 minutes. The spare wheel is on, and the wheel with the damaged tyre sits on the back of the van.
Now we need to think hard. It is Friday evening. Before Monday there is no way we can get the damaged tyre repaired. And without a spare we don’t want to venture onto the last stretch of piste, which is reputedly bad. It feels like defeat, but we decide not do any pistes until we have the tyre repaired, and confine ourselves to normal roads until then. Before, we had toyed with the idea to visit the Picos de Europa from here, before returning home. But where we can see ourselves discussing in French with French tyre shop staff about the repair, we don’t see ourselves do that in our non-existent Spanish in Spain. So we decide to weave our way to somewhere in the Bordeaux area over the weekend and try and find a tyre repair shop on Monday in Bordeaux, somewhere.
So, we descend from the mountain looking for a campsite, which we find in Ochagavia, on Camping Ozate. That night the wind gets very strong.
Saturday 7/9 we return to France via de Puerto de Larrau. A beautiful stretch of mountain road with great views and clear sight, thanks to the high wind and low temperature, which has dropped to some 10 degrees Celsius. On the pass we decide to make a little hike along the border crest to a nearby top. With knitted cap, gloves and windbreaker jacket on! Here one finds traces of recent history: little wooden pill boxes all along the crest where Guardia Civil soldiers guarded the border during the Basque ETA troubles.
It is weekend and beautiful weather, so we should have known… It gets very busy on these mountain passes! When we return from our walk, some men are building a party tent on the pass (not easy in the high winds..) preparing some fest, it seems. Going down, we find out what it is about: we encounter a bike race to the top, head on… The next pass, we run into herds of off-road fanatics of all sorts: mountain buggy’s, enduro motorbikes, jeeps, all racing up the mountain on various trial tracks, and down again, and hordes of onlookers, parked everywhere… We find the road we had planned to take is closed until 18:00 hrs, due to this festival. And then they will all return home again!
We decide to flee all this madness and return to the so much quieter Spain again by the first possibility. We end up on the campsite of Baztan. Pfew.
Sunday 8/9 we drive more or less straight to the dune area (what big dunes!) South-West of Bordeaux, partly on the péage. We find a beautiful camping spot on Camping Panorama du Pyla, right by the sea, with a beautiful view. Tomorrow, we will go looking for a tyre repair shop!
