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A peaceful night except for Woolly’s snoring! The clouds were a bit lower this morning but the view was still stunning, the Pyrenees were still there and we hadn’t dreamt them.
Woolly says – Snore, me….never! We seemed to be ready and packed into Oliver in good time and were at The Grottes de Betharram by 9.30am, although it opened at nine we were told by a sweet French gentleman with beret that the trip would start at ten past ten, we hovered around before getting on a coach. The coach took us further up the mountainside before we alighted at a building. Paying over 13 Euro each (approximately £11.90 GBP), we hoped it would live up to the price. We entered the caves with another bereted French man who split us into groups of French, Italian and us at the back being English. He was very good and spent most of the hour and a half tour running between the three different language speaking groups to provide us with information which was supplemented by recorded information at certain points. The higher levels of the caves had my favourite things, mites and tites, not as big or a
glorious as others we have seen but pretty cool none the less. The guide kept pointing at different places and explaining we would need to use our imagination to see the wolf, the bear, the elephant etc etc, we did need our imagination. Having viewed the upper chambers we then headed down into the chasm and towards what felt like the centre of the earth.
Centre of the Earth is nearly true and it would have been a real bonus if we had known there were 356 steps down, I could have strapped my knee!!!!
Woolly says – it seemed to take forever to get down and bless poor Jo she kept going holding onto me all the way. The lower caverns showed the river bed as it would have been and the water flow was clearly defined in the walls and ceilings. We walked through 40 metre caves being stopped occasionally to be informed and to use our imaginations again. I could hear running water, the remaining river that still flows through and then I saw a boat! Climbing aboard I got all excited thinking it would take a while to get round.
Two minutes later and we got back out of the boat and continued our walk through the centre of the Earth. Because it was quite dark it was difficult to take photos but Jo and Ian did try. Having walked for what seemed miles we arrived at a train!!!! Now this was worth the walk, it shot off through the caves, flying round corners and tooting it’s horn, brilliant, but over too quickly as we arrived back at the car park. All in all not worth the ticket price but it was interesting, I think Ian and Jo would have preferred some written information and to go at their own pace.
Having prized Woolly out of the train, we settled back in Oliver for the 238KM drive to Spain. The drive was easy and passing through the town of Betteram I wished we had time to stop as it looked so pretty. Following the foothills of the Pyrenees we passed through beautiful landscapes and villages before heading inland slightly to catch up to the main road into Spain. Squeezing past the very end of the Pyrenees we entered Spain through Hendaye….
Woolly says –
We had been in Spain for at least five minutes and I hadn’t even realised, no passport, no big sign, no nothing. Within a few kilometres we were surrounded by high rise apartments, vast office buildings and traffic coming from all directions. Ian and Oliver kept focussed while I kept trying to see something of the real Spain. Ian has been to Southern Spain before and disliked it, Jo has only been to a Costa place and hated it so we really wanted to see what the real country had to offer. If this was what was on offer it wasn’t what I had hoped for. Finally we found ourselves on windier roads with forests around us, this felt better. Finding Gran Camping Zarautz at Zarautz seemed easy, Jo didn’t need to use her one word of Spanish at all and had us booked in and shown to the plot for 18.70 Euro (approximately £15.40 GBP) with views over the Atlantic, a laundry (much needed), a bar and restaurant we should have a good night before we head inland tomorrow in the search of the traditional Spain.
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Carys
non-member comment
Lovely photos
you seem to be enjoying yourselves