66 EXTREMELY HARD MILES!
We woke up to nice weather so we decided to walk back into town to get some breakfast. After breakfast, we dried out the tent, packed, and once again got another late start ( 1 pm )! Today ended up being another day of a TON OF CLIMBING! We decided that we would take a route that was more north than west so that we could see the beauty of the Basque country side and have the opportunity to ride through this mountainous region. This decision proved to be a good one in terms of beauty but a bad one in terms of riding difficulty. We biked up and against a river most of the day, all the while biking in a very lush mountain region paralleling the French border. Because this area was so close to Pamplona, we saw many cyclists on the road doing all of the mountain climbs. Everybody was on their fancy bikes except for us. UGH! We stopped at a gas station and spoke to a cyclist in a small town and he recommended that we bike straight north into France ( over the lower section of the Pyrenees) and then further recommended that we bike back down to Spain/San Sebastian along the coast. Jeff did not want to do this as he knew it meant climbing more mountains and at least 5 more hours of riding for the day. I pushed for this and Jeff finally agreed. We spent the next five hours climbing endless mountains, biking in the heat, and then climbing so high that we were biking in the fog. The latter half of the day was spent biking in the lush green highlands of the mountains of the region AND biking in fog so think you could barely see your hand in front of you. Somehow when we landed in a tiny mountain town that was along the Camino de Santiago and found a very cheap hostal ( we could not find camping). We ended up getting a room with a bunk bed in it and sheets for us on the bed. They charged us €17 each. It was a typical hostel for lots of people who would be on the Camino to Santiago. All we really needed at this point ( 11 pm !) was food and a shower so this little hostal was a welcome relief. At this point we could tell we were in Basque country because all the houses were completely different than other places in Spain AND the language is completely different. The houses are very well and all display beautiful landscaping. On a side note: At this point our legs were so tired that Jeff and I could barely walk!
She Pedals the world 