9th October (sunny and mild, except at the top of hills where it was hot!) 46 km

I had a great sleep but Pete didn’t as there was a bit of a slope to the ground we were pitched on and he really noticed it.  I woke about 8am to him stuffing his sleeping bag away.  Looking outside it was a dreary morning so started the day with a cup of tea as we usually do, followed by cereal and banana.  Today we had the tuneful sound of the camp cleaner coughing her lungs out for a good hour while we ate and packed up.

My mission this morning was to find a great deal on a rental car/van that would be big enough to fit the two bikes in.  However, we had a major stumbling block.  All the car hire companies want the driver to pay with their credit card.  Only Pete is the only one who brought his license and got an international driver’s license as well, and I am the only one who brought a credit card.  Apparently this is not good enough for Spanish car hire companies.  I don’t know if this is a common policy everywhere in the world as we hardly ever hire a car – I think the last time was in the States thirty years ago.

So we’re no closer to getting off our bikes for a few days. Had a bit of a chat to our cycling neighbours from Leeds who are heading in the opposite direction to us – man I do not envy the day they have ahead of them! – before hitting the road about 11am.  The sun was out in full force and we had our first major hill before we even left the campground – man that driveway was steep!

Had a great view of Mundaka at the top and after cycling for about 200 metres had a view of the famous surf break.  Very good conditions today and about 60 surfers vying for them.  It was a break very much like Whangamata’s D-bar with a river mouth and the waves peeling off to the left uniformly.  We were already up quite high, but apparently not high enough as the road climbed higher still.  Had a small shady reprieve and then the ante was upped again.  Higher we climbed the twisting road around the coast, sweating in the sunny conditions.  At least we had a decent surface as this road led to a major point of interest, the island of Gaztelugatxeko which was apparently made famous by some movie. 

The town of Bermeo

A closer look at Bermeo

Slugging it out, higher and higher

It took us an hour to cycle the first 10kms it was so hilly and then we had about a 2 km downhill run to the famous island where we got a few shots, but you had to book a time to go on the island and they were all filled up for the next four days.  

The island of Gaztelugatxeo - firstly, who would build out there? and secondly, look at those lines rolling in!

So we continued our downhill run to the town of Bakio, where we came across the ultimate lunch spot.  It had everything we needed such as a wide expanse of concrete to lay out our dripping tent and groundsheet, rails everywhere to display our laundry, seats in the sun to keep us warm, but facing out to sea so we had the sun on our backs rather than in our faces.  As a bonus, we had a handful of surfers to watch getting pummelled by the big waves.  Made us feel ok about not having any gear with us.

Bakio - a pleasant little town 

Drying the tent and groundsheet

Spent about an hour there, but it wasn’t long before word got out that we were in town.  A family group started moving in, but we could tell they were cycle tourer groupies by the cameras in their hands.  They tried to disguise the fact by pointing their cameras out at sea, but why else would they choose the viewing level we were on, when there were three others that were completely empty?  Yes, they had heard about Pete’s now-famous undie drying methods and they were definitely on a mission to copy and patent.  We packed our things up quickly – we need that patent to fund our next trip.

From here I had chosen our course to follow a river – only we were following this river to it’s source, so therefore, uphill.  And what a hill.  I posed the question to Pete, steeper than Mt Messenger?  Absolutely he reckoned, and it sure was a helluva lot longer than the numerous car trips we’ve taken over Mt Messenger.

We came across the town of Mangia where we pulled into the supermarket.  While Pete went shopping, I researched the rest of the course for the day, trying to find the flattest route possible as our legs were dead.  I've gotta say, I did a pretty good job and the rest of the afternoon was smooth sailing.

Pete here: I was falling uncontrollably into the abyss, unable to call out for help, falling, falling, until finally I woke to my cycling helmet digging into my shoulder. Yes, once again my beauty sleep was interrupted by the fact that my wife has to have the upper hand, or in this case the top of the slope. Throughout the night any bodily contact with Julia was denied by that damn slope. Up I would clamber, with the thought of the wife's gentle caress, as my motivation (that would have been a dream as well), until, as I was almost there, I slid silently back to my trusted helmet.

Today's riding was a literal pain in the arse. If you can build bloody tunnels, why don’t you? Stopped counting the hills after the first half dozen. The coastline is very rugged and the weather was ideal, but oh boy, if someone had come past in a van and said, jump in, we would have done. Julia did a great job  navigating our route today, especially through such hilly terrain and both of us were very relieved to reach our camp at Sopelana. It is situated on the coast and set us back 19 Euros, a deduction of twenty five per cent for being out of season…. However, pool's closed, so what about another twenty five per cent, to make it realistic. Have to be honest, other than Igara in San Sebastian, the others have been expensive, so much for cheap Spain. Will be interesting to see how Portugal compares, because everyone says that’s really cheap….believe when see….!

Had showers, Julia's was cold, because she couldn’t find the hot ones and did some washing, which swung gaily on a line that previous tenants had set up. Then it was dinner, chilli con carne with green beans, before Julia went to use the wifi, I finished the blog and washed the dishes, before we returned to the tent, in darkness, for a cup of coffee and a pastry. Tomorrow it is into Bilbao to see if we can hire a car for the next three or four days. Not only are we behind on schedule, but the climbing is pretty rough. Great if you’re training for the Tour of Spain, not so good if you want to enjoy the rest of your holiday…..we’ll see what happens.