Saturday 18 March - Capbreton (France)

Where's Bertie? He's back at Capbreton, where it currently costs €10.50, including electricity and wifi.
Weather: Warm and sunny intervals for most of the day, then rain from 5pm.

A quick breakfast at 0700 then a fifteen minute drive to Tolosa, finding as we left Beasain that all the Aire spots had filled up at some point during the night. We hadn't noticed them arrive - even the one right next to us.

Why the early short hop to Tolosa? Because having looked at walking routes around Beasain I was struggling to find one with the right profile*. So, we took the short drive to where we had originally intended to spend last night.

I'm glad we didn't go there last night as planned. A couple of reviews on Park4Night in December or January (can't remember which) mentioned the circus being in town. I thought it'd be long gone by now, but no, the car park next to the Aire was taken up by a big top. So we didn't park in the Aire (last time we were there it felt rather out the way, even without being hidden behind a big tent), but in the next car park along, where plenty of motorhomes are in storage, so Bertie didn't stand out as an oddity.

Twenty minutes after arriving we were gently jogging towards the town, then out the other side, before finally making the turn up towards the hills. Then we turned back, having met a firmly locked gate across the track. We suspected we needed to go along what looked like someone's driveway, through their garden and continue on the other side, which we later confirmed as we looked back from the road we took instead, but in the absence of any waymarks, we weren't going to chance it. It wasn't long before we were back on track, and the rest of the route was navigated without issues.

We followed the gorgeous burbling stream during the initial climb

Then we gained enough height to have views, but only through the trees

Then we got open views

Before starting our descent, a chunk of which had been deforested.

The intention had been to do the circuit twice, but I didn't fancy repeating the initial road section, so during our 'slam-dunk a cup of tea and eat a chunk of tortilla' break back at Bertie, I looked up and downloaded a figure-of-eight route that used the tiny roads and paths immediately behind our car park.

More snaps from the outing. A rural idyll.

Outline of routes and key stats

Back at Bertie for the second time at 1330, it was too late to get washed, changed and back into town for lunch (our main reason for opting to revisit Tolosa), and we didn't fancy spending the night. Capbreton, only an hour north if you take the toll roads, became our destination.

Our first intermediate stop was only just over 5km away, where we left the motorway, drove right to the very back of an industrial estate and around the back of the last unit. There we found the one-pump diesel station (that being all they sold) and for the bargain price of 149c/litre the attendant filled Bertie fuller than he's been in quite a while. By the number of artics on the industrial estate, we think the fuel station primarily exists to serve them, but is happy to sell to the general public too.

The next stop was a Lidl. The shopping list was short, but I couldn't resist picking up lots of things that I know to be cheaper in Spain than France. What was supposed to be a little top-up shop ended up costing more than our usual weekly grocery bill.

Finally then we made for Capbreton, with the only hitch being that two of the toll booths declined our credit card. We've had the issue in the past on this toll road, but the same card was accepted when we headed south, so no idea what causes it. I hope we don't have the same issue further north, where the tolls will be more. I was able to dig out coins for a couple of €3 payments, but the coin bag was already depleted.

Being tea time by the time we had Bertie settled and plugged in, that was our priority on arrival.

I'm pleased to say that a chap has been around to collect our payment since we arrived. No need to fashion an envelope and write a note to put in the letterbox with our payment, as we did in January!

I thought Conrad would appreciate this gate. Tubular steel outer frame welded together, cross-supported by rebar, partly welded, but also sporting great quantities of hairy string - including as the closure mechanism.

^{(*The ideal at the moment is around 400m of ascent per 10k, but with an undulating profile. Around that area of Basque country most of the routes seem to have a single climb of 700-1000m, then a single descent of the same size.)}