It is half past 10. I have walked 10km from Deba thru the hills to Olatz. The others have been reorganising packs so I have had a snack and started this post.
It was a tough climb up the hill..almost 400m up via roads, tracks, forest and valley. I am a karst area now so lots of very old limestone and many telltale signs of caves. A lot of this mornings walk has reminded me of NZ..lots of cows and sheep. A lot of them have bells so it is quite noisy.
The sun is shining today -the best day so far. Shortsleeves and shorts-very comfortable to walk in and the pack is great. You know it is there but it is not heavy or uncomfortable at all...at this stage.
....
Well, the next stage was tough! Over 2km I climbed 300m on a concrete road thru a pine forest. Then another 3km just up and down until I found others at a rest stop..Arno... It was at a saddle by a farmhouse and I sat by a communal wash place. A big pool for clothes with a large rock for rubbing the clothes and beating them damp. All covered -a bit like a spa pool shelter. Lunch was great..salad, bread and salami. Then it was off..9 more km to go.
I found some extra functions in 'my tracks' -it can put markers at intervals (1km) and it can tell you your distance and pace while walking. So I increased my pace to try to lift the average k rate...was 3.5 before morning tea and by the end of the day I got it to an average of 4.9km per hour over the day. The 6 km after lunch were largely level with smaller climbs so it was easy to keep the pace up. The last 3kms were downhill. ..concrete path...300m descent across 2km.
It was great fun and I don't feel any worse for wear...probably will be stiff tomorrow.
As i entered the town of Markina-Xemein I saw a hexagonal church. I thought I could do with a break and some shade. I slung my pack off by the door and was just overpowered by what I saw inside. After today's walk I was not expecting to see a huge rock face or cliff and grotto inside the church. The church had obviously been built around the grotto...the rocks were 6m high and 6m wide. In the grotto was a very simple rock altar and a Madonna statue. San miguel de arretxinaga was the name of this church. .it is worth googling it.
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