Not quite Plan B, just a little tweaking of my original idea to trim the driving time down, and maybe not do quite so much walking as I did on Saturday.
It’s an interesting conundrum, pressing on to tick as many boxes as possible yet trying not to ‘do my pan in’!
“Take it easy”, the words of friends and family ringing in my ears nudged me to a little compromise, so I bombed off Hondarribia by the French border but still couldn’t resist knocking off a little coastal drive through this Basque region, before turning south and heading into Aragon. So after taking the nadgery coastal road visiting Lekeitio and Getaria I took the roads less used skirting around Pamplona until I eventually arrived at the hilltop village of Sos del Rey Católico.
Since disembarking the ferry on Saturday morning I had the top down (the car’s not mine) for the entire time I was ‘up North’ basque-ing in the sunshine. But heading into Aragon it turned cooler from the 15c it had peaked at, and I ended up hitting low cloud for the last hour of my journey. I was convincing myself that I was actually destined for a hilltop village and trusted I would see the sun again. I was less than 2 miles away from my destination and still shrouded in cloud as the climb to Sos del Rey commenced. As sure as eggs is eggs there was the blue sky again and I was greeted with the village bathed in sunshine. 😎
But make no mistake, it was quite cool and by the following morning I was scraping ice off the car as the low cloud returned. It was a bit slape underfoot as I set off at 9.30 on Monday morning but again, in no time I had climbed out of the fog to the glorious sunshine at Puerto de Sos. The snow was clearly visible on the mountain range on the other side of the valley to the northeast of me but a long way from the Pyrenees.
Descending from Puerto de Sos I remained in low cloud for the rest of the day which actually served a good purpose as it prevented dust from being thrown up as I traversed the semi desert of Bardenas Reales.
I’m now in Zaragoza, having arrived at 3pm and am treating myself to a good hotel so I can get a decent rest before the next two days of 200+ miles each, which should get me to the Costa Cálida (Cartagena area). Obviously there will be sightseeing en route 🤗.
What diversity in the terrain and weather, makes for a beautiful drive Brian. I had all these beads ready to send you after the “Top Down” comment, like New Orleans durning Mardi Gras. I guess Herman could wear them….
😂
Beautiful photos Brian, looks amazing. You’ll have to give me your route etc as we would like to do it x