Where's Bertie? He's in a car park next to a religious Sanctuary in Urkiola (exact location: 43.10012, -2.64213).
Weather: Showers throughout the day, but some good dry spells this afternoon and even a bit of blue sky.
We would happily have stayed longer in Elorrio, but having already overstayed our welcome, we made tracks this morning - including an extra circuit of the town when we discovered the road closed in our original direction of exit.
Our first stop was only 10km down the road, in the town of Abadiño. We'd not found anywhere satisfactory for a run in Elorrio, with the pavements interrupted by too many side roads, not to mention too many inclines for my liking. Abadiño, I'd read, had a cycle route, so that's to where we headed.
It was raining as we set out for a run, but dry as we finished, thus we enjoyed a few minutes of entertainment by wandering into the football ground across the road and watching a bit of a juniors match (under 10s, we guessed, and they were good).
With lunchtime fast approaching, we'd not yet had elevenses, and given the choice between having stale bread immediately, or driving for ten minutes to a Lidl and buying fresh croissant, we did the latter. Once the hunger pangs had been satisfied, we went back into the shop for the rest of the groceries we needed.
A decision point was then before us. Where to go next? To the coast? Straight to Bilbao? Or, a detour further inland to be in amongst the hills for the night?
Inland won, although I didn't know at the time quite how high we were going to climb. In fact, I still don't know how far we climbed, but Mick commented a few times on the tumbling MPG figure and the temperature was just 11 degrees when we got to our lofty destination.
Bertie is in the trees to the right of the middle of this shot
We're in a Natural Park here, and a recce around the car park told me there was a Visitor Centre just across the main road. 'Just across' turned out to be 0.5km away, involving a bit of a hill, but it was a helpful chap I met there, even though I caught him just as he was closing up for lunch. I came away with three walking route suggestions, but after yesterday's exertions and this morning's run, not to mention a sky that was tending towards heavy grey again, we found that our enthusiasm this afternoon only stretched to the 1.5km amble to the 'Three Crosses Viewpoint'...
...followed by a look around the Sanctuary next to which we are parked. As religious buildings go, it's rather modern and unremarkable, although I think Mick's verdict of 'It looks a bit like a power station' was a little harsh.
I think, as I type this, that we are now all alone in the car park. I'll not try to guess as to whether we'll have a quiet night, particularly as we are very close to the bell tower that may well chime the quarter hour all night.
Weather: Showers throughout the day, but some good dry spells this afternoon and even a bit of blue sky.
We would happily have stayed longer in Elorrio, but having already overstayed our welcome, we made tracks this morning - including an extra circuit of the town when we discovered the road closed in our original direction of exit.
Our first stop was only 10km down the road, in the town of Abadiño. We'd not found anywhere satisfactory for a run in Elorrio, with the pavements interrupted by too many side roads, not to mention too many inclines for my liking. Abadiño, I'd read, had a cycle route, so that's to where we headed.
It was raining as we set out for a run, but dry as we finished, thus we enjoyed a few minutes of entertainment by wandering into the football ground across the road and watching a bit of a juniors match (under 10s, we guessed, and they were good).
With lunchtime fast approaching, we'd not yet had elevenses, and given the choice between having stale bread immediately, or driving for ten minutes to a Lidl and buying fresh croissant, we did the latter. Once the hunger pangs had been satisfied, we went back into the shop for the rest of the groceries we needed.
A decision point was then before us. Where to go next? To the coast? Straight to Bilbao? Or, a detour further inland to be in amongst the hills for the night?
Inland won, although I didn't know at the time quite how high we were going to climb. In fact, I still don't know how far we climbed, but Mick commented a few times on the tumbling MPG figure and the temperature was just 11 degrees when we got to our lofty destination.
Bertie is in the trees to the right of the middle of this shot
We're in a Natural Park here, and a recce around the car park told me there was a Visitor Centre just across the main road. 'Just across' turned out to be 0.5km away, involving a bit of a hill, but it was a helpful chap I met there, even though I caught him just as he was closing up for lunch. I came away with three walking route suggestions, but after yesterday's exertions and this morning's run, not to mention a sky that was tending towards heavy grey again, we found that our enthusiasm this afternoon only stretched to the 1.5km amble to the 'Three Crosses Viewpoint'...
...followed by a look around the Sanctuary next to which we are parked. As religious buildings go, it's rather modern and unremarkable, although I think Mick's verdict of 'It looks a bit like a power station' was a little harsh.
I think, as I type this, that we are now all alone in the car park. I'll not try to guess as to whether we'll have a quiet night, particularly as we are very close to the bell tower that may well chime the quarter hour all night.
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