Where's Bertie? He's in a car park on a hill above Bilbao (exact location: 43.27494, -2.91918)
Weather: Wall-to-wall sunshine once the morning fog had burnt off.
What a contrast to yesterday! Admittedly, it didn't start fantastically, when we woke to fog, but I felt sure that it would burn off in time, so we tarried until 11, then set out to repeat (and extend) yesterday's walk.
It was still a bit foggy as we set out...
... but there were signs of brightness, so if it didn't burn off before we reached the top, we hoped to be treated to an inversion.
It wasn't long before we were in clear air, with this view being the first we saw:
With the best of both worlds, there was also an inversion over to one side of us...
...whilst in the direction we were heading, it was perfectly clear at all levels:
What a contrast to yesterday:
Same spot, 24 hours apart
When we reached the furthest point in yesterday's walk, rather than picking up the return track, we wandered up onto the striking limestone ridge and enjoyed elevenses in a lovely spot with cracking views:
The person in this shot is not Mick - he was sitting next to me as I took it
Not far away from us on the ridge was a small prominence with something marking its summit, so we thought we may as well nip up there and at least have visited one of the high points on the ridge.
The little rocket thing marking the top helpfully had the name plate telling me the name and altitude of the lump on which we were standing: Baskonia - 973m
After a short retracing of the steps, a slightly different route was taken to the track that was to return us to Bertie. It turns out that I was uncharitable towards that track in yesterday's rain; it was much nicer under today's perfect sky.
We could quite easily have enjoyed another day in the Natural Park, but with it not being a designated motorhome parking area, we felt we shouldn't stay more than 2 nights. Down to Durango we went for a top-up shop, then onwards to Bilbao.
Our choices in Bilbao were an Aire (€15) or the adjacent car park (free) on the west side of the city, or here (also free), on a hill on the east side. The only things I had against the options on the west side were the time and distance to get into the city. Here we are about 100m away from the funicular railway that for 95 cents each will whisk us down into the city in just 6 minutes. There's a cracking viewpoint up here, giving a panorama over the city and, as a bonus, it seems that the restaurant next to which we are parked is closed this week, so there (hopefully!) won't be too much coming and going late at night.
Weather: Wall-to-wall sunshine once the morning fog had burnt off.
What a contrast to yesterday! Admittedly, it didn't start fantastically, when we woke to fog, but I felt sure that it would burn off in time, so we tarried until 11, then set out to repeat (and extend) yesterday's walk.
It was still a bit foggy as we set out...
... but there were signs of brightness, so if it didn't burn off before we reached the top, we hoped to be treated to an inversion.
It wasn't long before we were in clear air, with this view being the first we saw:
With the best of both worlds, there was also an inversion over to one side of us...
...whilst in the direction we were heading, it was perfectly clear at all levels:
What a contrast to yesterday:
Same spot, 24 hours apart
When we reached the furthest point in yesterday's walk, rather than picking up the return track, we wandered up onto the striking limestone ridge and enjoyed elevenses in a lovely spot with cracking views:
The person in this shot is not Mick - he was sitting next to me as I took it
Not far away from us on the ridge was a small prominence with something marking its summit, so we thought we may as well nip up there and at least have visited one of the high points on the ridge.
The little rocket thing marking the top helpfully had the name plate telling me the name and altitude of the lump on which we were standing: Baskonia - 973m
After a short retracing of the steps, a slightly different route was taken to the track that was to return us to Bertie. It turns out that I was uncharitable towards that track in yesterday's rain; it was much nicer under today's perfect sky.
We could quite easily have enjoyed another day in the Natural Park, but with it not being a designated motorhome parking area, we felt we shouldn't stay more than 2 nights. Down to Durango we went for a top-up shop, then onwards to Bilbao.
Our choices in Bilbao were an Aire (€15) or the adjacent car park (free) on the west side of the city, or here (also free), on a hill on the east side. The only things I had against the options on the west side were the time and distance to get into the city. Here we are about 100m away from the funicular railway that for 95 cents each will whisk us down into the city in just 6 minutes. There's a cracking viewpoint up here, giving a panorama over the city and, as a bonus, it seems that the restaurant next to which we are parked is closed this week, so there (hopefully!) won't be too much coming and going late at night.
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