Navarre

 A 'Digi' SIM from a small shop in town sorted me out for connectivity and still feeling surprisingly rough I drove over to Irurtzun on the Plazaola Via Verde that provides a quiet spot on the edge of town with good facilities at a very reasonable 5 euros for 48 hours. It was sunny, bright and cold but I still felt listless so rested up for the day. 

 A twenty mile ride up to Lekunberri and back was more than enough - a coffee at the old station was very welcome - on the way up I had seen perhaps fifty vultures tearing in to a dead horse with another fifty or so devouring carrion around the field and at least a hundred circling high above the valley - a remarkable sight. On my return two hours later there was no sign of bird or beast....

 

I drove on down to Pamplona ten miles away in search of gas, failing to find it in a huge Leroy Merlin DIY store but being absolutely amazed at the vast range and variety of stock - the western world has gone mad. A CEPSA petrol station in the city did have the bottles - I needed two and the serving lass was astounded when I told her the same cylinder is 80 euros in the UK and Ireland - only 18 here.

A lovely drive through the wooded mountains to the north brought me to Jauntsarats where the village provide a small aire with water and parking on a grassy spot behind a sports hall. Bizarrely I noticed two brightly coloured macaws tethered in a tree and later even more unexpectedly the two lads in a Dreamer van set off on mountain bikes with a bird each on their rucksacks.

 

It was a very quiet night and on the Sunday Gary, the friend from Portugal, called to say he would be in the area on Monday so I decided to head back to Irurtzun and bag two adjacent pitches. I walked up to the vulture observation post high up behind the aire and then dropped back to the VV which then returned to the aire passing through various tunnels and two huge rock portals. On one a group of climbers were abseiling down from a partially completed climb on a vast slab of almost sheer limestone.

 

Gary arrived late morning and we dropped in to the village for a coffee and a catch up. It has been a trying process selling up, transferring the business and storing possessions until he moves in to a new property in July or August so he was looking forward to a steady run through France and some long overdue catch up time with friends and family in the UK.

We said our goodbyes on the Tuesday morning and I headed a few miles and a thousand metres higher in to the Sierra de Aralar with snow starting to fall as I reached the remarkable old monastery of San Miguel in Excelsis with a couple of inches of settled snow and a howling wind for good measure. I had planned to stay up there but mindful of a steep descent on the north facing side and the possibility of black ice in the morning I decided to drop down the superb twisting road to Lekunberri, stay in the aire and walk up to the cafe for a decent coffee and cake before tucking away with the heater doing its job. 

 

Returning to Irurtzun via the monastery, which was looking almost Bavarian in the sunshine as the weather started to clear. I was now feeling back to normal after over a week so I took the path up to the Trinidad ermita above the town that had great views across to the still snow covered Aralar tops before dropping down to Latasa. A lovely collie had arrived at the top with a large group of Spanish walkers taking a different route but he wasn't with them and proceeded to follow me the seven miles down to first Latasa and then back to the aire. We parted company as he toddled off but I noticed later the local police had grabbed him and before long a van belonging to a sheep's cheese maker turned up : apparently he is well known for regularly wandering off, the dog that is!

 

Keen to use a final gas up I cooked and froze various meals next morning, had a hot shower and was soon removing the bikes to change a cylinder, deal with the loo, clean the bathroom thoroughly and put everything back ready for the couple of hours across to Bilbao. The CEPSA girl was laughing as I returned - threatening to charge me the full 80 euros - and there was some heavy rain as I passed Argomaniz where the Parador had been. A short delay after an accident outside Bilbao saw me arrive at Mungia mid afternoon - the fresh water supply is rather slow but I was soon parked up and walked in to town to check that the laundrette would be open next day.

 

After a quiet night I took the laundry down to get all practicalities seen to before tomorrow's mid morning sailing to Rosslare - I need to swop over maps and guides, change the SD card in the SatMap gizmo and start adjusting to driving on the left after four months.

It has been another amazing trip, the van behaving impeccably with approaching 100,000 miles under my ownership and 130k in total. Ireland will be a different and costlier trip as there are few free camping options but I am looking forward to filling the gaps from previous trips stretching back to caving in the Burren some forty years ago.

Anyway no additional pics this time as it's not long since the last post unless you are a glutton for punishment in which case this link will take you to an album of over 100 top shots from 2023 - you've been warned .... LINK