Word Of Mouse

Our planned day off on the coast north of Biarritz was scuppered by the sate of the campsite and its inhabitants: It took us all of the 30 seconds the bloke spent picking up the biggest bits or rubbish off our pitch to decide this would be a a one night stop only. Anyway I´m sure Malc is wirting more of teh joys of that spot as a I type. I mention it because we arrived in Spain a day earlier than planned, hot, tired and ill-prepared. We just didn´t find a spot we felt like stopping in on any of teh French coast south of Biarritz.
So we rode on and got to a river and with little sense of ceremony passed a little EU sign and welcome to Spain notice, and there we were in another country. It was Sunday afternoon, we´d just ridden off the edge of our map, we didn´t know where we could stay, nothing was open and suddenly everything had gone very foreign. I think there were moments when both of us thought of turning back to spend the night in France, but partly because that wasn´t an attractive proposition and partly because we couldn´t admit defeat so easily we plodded on and found a campsite. It was very lovell though located by the lighthouse (at the top of the cliff!)
things looked a lot better once we´d managed to book in (using both our words of Spanish and none of teh Basque we don´t know), had pitched our tent in the shade and gone down the cliff for a swim. we decided to stay two nights and spent the next day doing things like buying a map and a phrase book. we also bought some goggles and headed back to where we had seen others snorkelling to previous day. Not expecting a lot I was happy with teh three difernt sorts of fish that I saw and not much surprised to find things quite limited. Malc with his diving experience was a bit disappointed by the leaking goggles and double vision but hey it was fun...
later that evening we went for a lovely walk along teh coast and past teh sewerage works. It´s a high tech thing recently built with European funding and generating power from bio gas and with super filtration, but I couldn´t help make the association between it and the sea cuts we got from the rocky beach, happily turning itchy and red. Once again, the tea tree is proving its value.

After another sleepless night (it seems some Spanish people don´t have any ability to talk quietly) we decided to set off. The first plan was to stock up in food back in Hondarribia before heading off over the hill and towards San Sabastian, but mysteriously all teh shops were closed - it seemed it was some sort of bank holiday becaus ethis didn´t match with what was on the shop doors. hey ho. we did find a baker and Malc bought bread and we set off knowing we had cheese in our pack. we pedalled and pedalled and went up and up and again arrived on tops of a misty cold wlesh hill. At 455 m we were glad of our waterproofs as we sat and eat lunch in a cloud. Lunch was a big disappointment. the bread was like sawdust and it took us ages to choke down, each mouthfull followed by a glug of water. At leat the now warm and runny camenbert provided a little lubrication. Help what are we going to do for food?! insuficiently nourished we headed on down into the warm steam of the next town, sweeping in just as teh few shops that might have been open closed. Our map (which turns out not to have been sucha hot purchase but was the best option at the time) showed the town as a white circle and we strugled for hours fist to find teh tourist office (we never did)and then to find a way out that avoided the dual carriage way. eventually we headed up and up out of teh town and freestyles our way along to San Sebastian, arriving through an industrial estate and eventually following the river to a lovely town centre and sea front. We stopped and had a drink and relaxed a litle. Having managed to find the only shop in town open to sell food we stocked up on emergency rations and decded to press on in spite of our inadequate map to a place where the roads get quieter and the next campsite.

we set off on an innocent loking road which became a dual carriage way. we pressed on in the belief that it would go back to normal road once clear of town. A hundred metres on it became a tunnel! we had no choice but to turn back. we were able to walk down a pavement a short way against teh traffic and then had to test the tandem´s manouveurability to the limit as we unloaded adn clambered and hauled and got our stuff over some railinga and onto a quiet single track road some way below. phew! At that point we decided to stay the night. This wan´t as simple as it turned out (but I should have known that- it was just one of those days from teh moment i couldn´t put my shirt on properly in the morning). we followed endless signs to hotels the disappeared of were full or beyond our budget and eventually headed for a campsite we´d seen marked on (or just off) a town map. Sometime after 9 we arrived there hot, tired (did I mention it was at the top of another big hill?), very hungry. It was full but they let us pitch anyway. Hot showers, clean toilets, good night's sleep. enough to make us want to stay an extra day, which is what we are now doing. we got the bus down the hill this morning and are enjoying a more relaxed look round town. We even found lunch that didn´t include inedible bread (good on theturkish cafe) though I must learn how to say NO MAYONNAISE (thank you).