Elizondo

What could possibly go wrong - an early start, route all sorted to avoid the excessive hilliness of my original plan and the weather was looking spot on. Scooted through San Sebastian without too much trouble, though I almost ended up on a motorway - oh the irony. The plan was to go up the coast to the border and take the main road to Pamplona. Google had suggested a shorter route but that was on motorways - thay should have been the warning but it was not headed. 20 miles in and in theory with only 44 to go, admittedly on a very busy road, and I'm informed bikes are not allowed - I'm assuming it was tunnel issues but if that's the case designate it as a motorway. Two choices - go back & do the orginal route amounting to a total of 110 miles or take a 25 mile detour into France & the Pyrenees - that isn't going to be flat but a total of 90 miles. Unsurprisingly there were some hefty ups - you know it's bad when your ears pop three times before the summit. Having made the decision, the concern was really maintaining supplies - it was going to have to be a little often but that required shop intervention & nothing had been viewed. Thankfully in a liitle village - Elizondo, there was an Eroski - open far more consistently than most. Another detour, another banning order & another tripple popper - an absolute pig. Even after all this there was still 40 or so miles to go. Plodded on & a good chunk of gradual down & flat helped. 15 miles to go & the first glimpse of Pamplona was sweet. As it happens probably the best - not the most inspiring of places. Good job as the hotel was a good 4 miles out of the city in an industrial estate.Read more