Saturday 30th October 2021

After leaving our overnight parking place we took on diesel as we were heading for France and diesel is considerably cheaper in Spain. We took the toll motorway past San Sabastian in rainy conditions. The signs seen here reads France 1 kilometre.

We continued on the toll motorway when we had crossed to France stopping at a service area to empty our waste tanks. We stopped for the day at a free motorhome parking area at the mouth of the River Adour in the port area of Bayonne. Ann took this picture of our van from the surrounding dunes.

Big ships come and go to and from the port. The pilot boat sees them safely in and out.

We are very close to a beautiful beach.

There is lots of driftwood around here.

We took a walk along the very long breakwater.

We had our last glimpse of the Pyrenees in the distance.

This is a very popular place - lots of people turned up for a Saturday evening stroll.

There are multilingual signs warning of the danger of swimming in the sea here. We saw some surfers.

Today we travelled 75 miles (121 kilometres). We are at: N43.5299 W1.5192

Bayonne Port   Street View

Friday 29th October 2021

It rained a bit in the night and it rained quite a lot this morning. After making a supermarket stop we finally reached the Atlantic close to the town of Ondarroa and stopped for the day at this seaside car park.

There is a beautiful beach here.

The rocks are amazing.

Big waves are coming in.

The town of Ondarroa is just across the bay.

The geology here is really unusual.

There is a walkway round from "our" beach to an adjoining beach. Apparently this is a nudist beach but there weren't any nudists or anyone else but us when we visited

This is a very rocky coast.

What about this for weird geology?

There is some mega vegetation around here.

Back at the car park there is a family of four parked next to us - mother and father and two little boys - five if you count their doggie.

Today we travelled 27 miles (43 kilometres). We are at:N43.3204 W2.4109

Ondarroa    Street View

Thursday 28th October 2021

We travelled north west today stopping along the route to take on LPG and buy bread. We were held up temporarily by this accident which reduced the road to one lane with the police letting traffic through alternately in each direction.

We stopped for the day at the Basque town of Elorrio. We are at the town's very nice aire.

There are some fine views from the aire.

We walked downhill to the old town.

This is the main square.

The church is absolutely enormous - big enough to be a cathedral!

Inside the church you can put a euro in this little machine and the whole massive interior is flooded with light.

The interior is ornate in the extreme.

A whole wall is taken up by this massive depiction which commemorates the martyrdom of the local saint in Viet Nam.

The scale of the place is really breath taking.

What's going on here. Maybe a case for Anne Marie?

And what about this picture. Sorry it isn't clearer.

Who is this in a glass box? Possibly the martyred saint.

This plaque outside says something about the church in Basque and Spanish - unfortunately I don't know either language.

It seems a lot of the old town was destroyed in a fire in the 15th Century.

You can only see the church tower from a distance. Close up it is obscured by surrounding buildings.

The aire here is extremely well appointed with an excellent service point which allows two vans to dump waste water simultaneously. 

It's free to stay here and water is also free at this time of year. If only local authorities in Britain realised the social and economic benefits of this kind of infrastructure.

Today we travelled 57 miles (92 kilometres). We are at:N43.1283 W2.5462

Elorrio       Street View - before the aire was constructed

Wednesday 27th October 2021

This morning it was quite misty. We walked into the centre of Lombier. Nice old town with lots of interesting old doors.

We saw this mural and bought some bread.

We went into the church.

The interior is very ornate.

It all seems a bit over the top.

It also appears to be a very large church for what is quite a small town.

Here's the church exterior.

And from another angle.

Is this a stork's nest on top of the church tower?

The mist was clearing to some extent as we left Lombier and headed north west.

We went past Pamplona on the motorway and stopped for the day at the aire above the town of Irurtzun. Here's the view from our parking place.

Ann visited the nearby cemetery. They do a good cemetery round these parts.

There is a walking and cycling track which runs close to the aire. We took a walk.

There were fantastic views in all directions. We saw some eagles flying around the top of this cliff.

We retraced our steps back to our van.

It would cost 5 euros for 24 hours stay at the aire in summer but at this time of year the barrier is up and the ticket machine is switched off.

There is what at first sight looks like a very good service point with free water supply however when I went to empty our toilet there I found out that the lid on the drain would not stay open of it's own accord and I had to find a stick to prop it open with.

We lazed away the afternoon. I thrive on idleness.

As dusk approached there was some nice light on the mountainside. The small VW van on the right belongs to a Hungarian woman who studied English in Dublin.

We had a good chat with her. I like her number plate however Sky might not mean much in Hungarian.

There was a nice sunset.

Today we travelled 40 miles. We are at: N42.9208 W1.8250

Irurtzun    Street View - the aire hadn't been built yet when Google passed by!