Advertisement
Published: April 8th 2009
Edit Blog Post
Day 9
Monday 6th April Up bright and early but still not as early as our German friends who were up and gone before sunrise. We packed up and made our way down the road to the bakery where we had a coffee and toast (I know.. coffee... coming around to the dark side...) and a chocolate croissant, as well as getting some snacks for the day.
While very scenic, it was a fairly unremarkable day, with us arriving at Larrabetzu just before 3pm. We planned on camping somewhere between Larrabetzu and the next town Lezama, but we arrived during siesta and so there were no shops open to buy supplies for dinner. So we headed to the pub where we played cards until 4pm, when we then found out that the supermarket didnĀ“t re-open until 5.30....
So we continued walking out of Larrabetzu for a kilometre or so until we found our potential campsite for the night. Although still moderately suburban, it was a decent sized block on which numerous greenhouses (or should that be whitehouses) where built, in which tomatoes, lettuces, etc were being grown. As
luck would have it, the farmer pulled into the driveway as we were admiring its potential, and it was fine with him for us to camp there the night.
So we left Dav and Lauren to start setting up camp, while Ben and I walked back into town to buy some ingredients for dinner. By this time it had started to drizzle slightly so we were very lucky to have camped where we did as the farmer had a shed in which we could shelter. So we relocated to the shed, and with the protection of a roof over our heads, Lauren and I cooked up a fantastic dinner (our famous chirizo stew with baguette), followed by more cards. It turned out to be a very fun night as this was a continuing game from the previous night and somehow Ben managed to go from last place (and very convincingly last) to beating us all (again, quite convincingly).
With the game over and sleep beckoning, we then dodged raindrops back to our tents and hit the sack.
Day 10
Tuesday 7th April The rain continued throughout the night at a light drizzle, but we were lucky in the morning as it stopped for a while, giving us a chance to pack up our wet tents. We left the farmer a bottle of wine as a thank you and then were on our way again.
We set off, following the road into Lezama where we had some breakfast, before once again setting off along the road to Zamudio. The rain was coming down again by then and we were all fairly soaked despite being decked out in our wet-weather gear.
From Zamudio we veared left and up, and the road when from bitumen, to rocks to muddy clay, and so for every few steps forward we would slide half a step back. However, as is always the way, eventually we made it to the top where we were greeted with sunshine. We must have looked a mess - all wet and muddy, and with nothing but sunshine all around.
We decided not to risk muddy tracks,and so instead followed the road down into Bilbao. We stopped briefly to admire a massive old cathedral,
before hitting the old part of town which was just gorgeous. On and on we walked through the city, with our accommodation for the night being at the very opposite end of this massive city, and, to top it all off, at the top of a bloody big hill... We finally made it, checked in, had a shower and lunch and a little rest, loving the knowledge that we would be resting our poor weary bodies for the next 36 hours or so.
As lunch was so late, dinner ended up being some chips and tinto verano over yet another game of cards, before once again calling it a night and collapsing into bed.
Day 11
Wednesday 8th April Today was a very lazy day in general with me spending a lot of time on this very computer updating you all with our travels, and just generally enjoying not walking much! Tomorrow we are off again so we are just enjoying have our feet up and no packs on our backs!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.381s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 8; qc: 50; dbt: 0.0662s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb