Since we weren´t very impressed by the French Riviera beaches, we headed towards the Pyrenees stopping at a campground in a town called La Tour de France for a night(nothing to do with a famous cycling race, but we thought it was a cool name anyway). Then headed to a village on the Spanish side of the Pyrenees called Benasque where we spent a couple of days hiking. The border with France was literally over the ridge so we headed over there for the day. Lets just say, we weren´t that impressed by it when we came across a naked Frenchman lying in the grass at the top of a pass (very weird!). We also attempted to climb/walk up Mt Aneto which is the highest in the Pyrenees, but unfortunately the weather closed in on us as we reached the col about 100m from the top and we made the decision to turn around for the knee breakingly steep path back down the valley... our mistake that day was not knowing that we could have avoiding the first 2 boring hours of walking up to a refuge by taking a 4wd bus, as all the other hikers did! Luckily we made it back to the refuge to catch the last bus down at the end of the day so we avoided walking in the thunderstorm which began once we were safely back in the car. Dinner that night was cooked out of the door of the car in between the lightning and thunder whilst pools of water grew and grew in the campsite around us - we had no choice but to eat what we had in the car, as the Duke wouldn´t have made it out of the mud!
We then headed to the Ordesa area of the Spanish Pyrenees for another couple of days including some awesome wild camp spots - one in some old ruins near the road end (where lots of people seemed to be free camping mostly in campervans), and one at 2200m overlooking the huge Ordesa canyon. We hiked up the canyon for a day with our gear, including a small section to get out of the canyon via chains and pegs (Alex took the more sensible alternative path). Although the camp spot was next to a very popular refuge with dozens of people milling around, it was a very peaceful spot - just chilling out in the sun and watching the sheep follow each other in long lines on the other side of the valley. We camped the night then decided to head up towards Monte Perdido (3rd highest mountain in the Pyrenees) for a couple of hours before heading back down to the car as we had to get going out of the Pyrenees that day. We weren´t expecting to get very far as we had struggled with understanding the hiking maps as they are all in Spanish and don´t seem to have graded routes, all the trails look the same on the map and yet some could require mountaineering gear whilst others were bus routes! The trail was busy though and as we kept going we became more and more confident that perhaps the top was within our reach. Still the last couple of hundred vertical metres were very steep scree slopes so it was 2 steps up and then 1 step/slide down! Just after 10am though, we made it to the top with beaut views in all directions including down into France. The scree run down was fun too, and I was very glad we headed up so early as the top was shrouded in cloud by the time we arrived back at our tent. As Alex had carried the daypack up to the top, I agreed to carry the tent back down the canyon along with the rest of my gear (well Alex suggested and I didn´t say otherwise). It all backfired when I twisted my ankle going downhill 5 minutes later! Alex took the tent back and some of my other gear as well.
We spent that evening drinking Sangria and eating tapas in Pamplona and then drove to Bilbao on Friday morning to meet up with Dani - a friend of Alex´s from his Cincinnati/San Fran days. We have been living it up for the last 3 nights here, sleeping in a real bed (after 17 days camping), eating at a table and sitting on a couch - wow, how luxurious! We have done a bit of sightseeing around Bilbao including checking out the famous Guggenheim Museum (thanks Dani for the free tickets!), experiencing a traditional Basque festival in a small town called Plenxtia where teams of dressed up teenagers were playing organised games of musical chairs and relay races involving spinning around a broomstick (so its impossible to run in a straight line). The antics were all lubricated by Kalimotxo (pronounced Calimocho) - a quite yummy concoction of cheap red wine and coke which we have partaken in every night since staying here! We must remember it as its very refreshing although I´m not sure very cheap wine is available in oz or nz - a litre of table wine here costs 55 Euro cents (that´s about AU$1!)
Today we headed to the beach for the day, a place called Mundaka which is famous for its surf break although today the tide was too high for good waves. Alex and I attempted to get rid of our terrible t-shirt tans (from all the hiking) but I think we have just managed to make more crazy patterns. Luckily the sun is not nearly as strong as in Oz/Nz as it was a serious all day outing - probably because we had to get a ride in a boat belonging to one of Danny´s friends across to the beach on the other side of the estuary. We have been eating pretty well here too, lunch at about 3 (as they do here) was spanish ommelette in a footlong roll from a very popular place at the beach, and dinner was the most massive burgers I have ever seen (we shared 2 burgers between 3 people and it was plenty). Thanks for having us Dani (and Maria)!
Tomorrow we leave for the home straight back to the UK, via Biarritz, Bordeaux and some beaches.
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