The first 40kms or so today was a cruise down a fairly deserted main road.
Whereupon we happened upon Lumbier…simply time for a coffee stop! But we were in for a surprise…for it was fiesta time!! Barricades set up on all side streets….everyone wearing white with a red bandana….ready for a bull-run!!
Funny to thunk really….over 1,000,000 folk descend on Pamplona for their famous bulls runs…but they happen in many towns and cities across Spain! And here…..we were certainly the only tourists!! Sadly…the bull run was not happening today…but with a tiny bit of planning….you too can enjoy a running of the bulls, without all the tourists, without all the inflated prices…so much more authentic really.
Today was kids day…(tomorrow is pensioners day…maybe more appropriate!)…so lots of excitement as kids with big heads(!!) chased all the little ones and bashed them with balloons!
Good fun….with a parade to boot!!
From Lumbrier…our route took us through the ‘Foz de Lumbrier’…a spectacular gorge…complete with rail trail cycle path!
And then we headed off road….lovely track…
…..until…
…just ten metres of mud! Just an innocuous ten metres! But it was that soft sticky gluggy mud….which stuck hard and thick to tyres rendering any forward movement. Memories of a similar episode in Sicily last year with Alan.
This was followed by a stiff climb….on slippery bumpy rock…and we both had the issue of bouncing panniers catching in our spokes….(& falling off). Nae did a lot of walking! She is not a fan of off road biking!!!
Thankfully the tarmac was not too far away…and we then enjoyed a glorious ride on an all but new – but deserted – road, up to..
The hills are certainly getting higher!
And then…on an equally long descent! (..has Nae got a gun?)
After our prior exertions…we were both a bit knackered…and very thirsty…so unusually stopped for a beer just three kms from our destination!! Very decadent! But we knew that 3 km was all uphill…so felt it was warranted!
And so to our Hospederia Villa de Pintano. An all but deserted village. Indeed this and our beer-stop village have combined population of just 102!
Strange place…but very friendly hosts…and a gorgeous view!
Until…of course….when we stat down for a beer….the rain started. The thunder and lightening started. It became a deluge!
And it was still thundering and pouring down when we went to bed some hours later!!
In the interim…we had the only food on offer….! A full three course dinner. We started with huge starters and both decided that would be enough. But proceeded to munch our way through monster mains…and puddings…and coffee…before we both rolled to bed..full as bulls (appropriately?)
