Day 12 Thursday 7 October

Navarrenx to Dancharia (Espâna) -60 miles

The lads original plan for this day was to drive to Bayonne and then cycle into Spain along the coast to our projected camping site at Zarautz. However on the drive over on Tuesday they had been so attracted by the rolling hill nature of the road that the plan was varied to cycle the 60 miles from last nights campsite to the Spanish border.

The revision initially was perfect in that the roads were as anticipated with little traffic apart from occasional heavy grain lorries (it is a massive maize growing area) and they made great time until we ventured onto new territory in the final 25 miles. Then the roads were less well signed and I think the efforts of yesterday were beginning to tell. The last 20 miles took as long as the first portion and they were very glad to reach the border crossing point, which was predictably unmanned. Actually we were a bit miffed with the British Consulate as we looked in vain for her majesties representative waiting to greet us!

For me on the drive there were a couple of very pretty small towns we passed through such as La Bastide-Clairence and Ainhoa just before the border. The architecture seems more Alpine than French.

So they returned to the van for the drive to Zarautz where we had an interesting hour trying to find our base for the night ~ the Spanish signing is even worse than the French but we got here and find ourselves perched on a cliff top overlooking the Golfo De Vizcaya. Oh and there’s a bar on site!!

Mind horror of horrors ~ we’re nearly out of Jenny’s wonderful fruit cakes ~ where’s the nearest Morrisons?