Coastal heaven (If you believe in that sort of thing!)

The previous day had been a precursor to today. It was good to get the limbs moving again, all that cheese and wine had taken its toll.

Today was to be a longer outing heading the other way along the cliff, the guide had its length at 22.6 km with a time of 6.5 hours, which seemed optimistic. It looked a reasonably adventure along a ridge, with the cliffs down below.

We parked up Dora next to the Supermarket and went to the bus stop. We had anticipated that the bus would drop us back at Pasai San Jose, no such luck. It headed up the road to Pasai San Pedro, adding another couple of kilometres to the route, but more importantly time.

The days were getting shorter, with sunset at about 19:15. We had hoped to start the walk by 11:00 giving us a good eight hours of sunlight, a nice bit of contingency should we get lost! No matter, we would still be starting before 11:30 and the revised starting point was interesting as it was through the industrial area, port and marina.

Fishermen littered the waterside, except around this point which was absolutely awash with fish.

Dogfish I think, the ugly ones I managed to catch back in Newquay. It would seem these are a bit of a pest and of no interest to the angler.

Maybe we could make them into crabsticks or something like that.

A church I presume, with some lovely concrete moulded into an interesting geometry. Wish I could see the inside!

What I like about such buildings is that you can see how they work, and the form is for a purpose. Here that interesting geometry is being used as a large beam which allows the building to cantilever precariously out over the cliff edge. Very dramatic.

I have always loved the cranes, very anthropomorphic, standing there over the dockside. A bit redundant now? Like many young Spanish, unfortunately.

Fishing is so important here, and the boats look really serious. Much bigger than in France and the UK.

We headed back across to Pasai San Jose using the same ferry as yesterday.

And stopped in a bar for a coffee and to use the facilities before our excursion. You can tell we are now in Spain.

Such a cute village, maybe we should have sat in the square, out in the sun for our coffee.

We left the village, continuing along the road, with the sea to our left. The road climbed gradually.

The weather continued to hold. Bright blue skies. Like August in the UK, if you are lucky.

Then we got to a junction and at that junction was a large board showing the routes along the coast. Our route headed inland, following a ridge, but there was another which hugged the cliffs This route looked even more enticing, but there was a problem. Our chosen path took 6.5 hours, the cliff hugging route took 9. It was 11:30. We would have an hour trekking in the dark. We would follow our original route, reluctantly.

We continued upwards, but we were now heading back towards the cliff. What a shame, it seemed that we had wandered onto the more adventurous path. Now we could continue, or retrace our steps. If we had been in the mountains the decision would be obvious, retrace. Here, an obvious route. We had our mobiles, which can act as torches in an emergency, and we were probably only looking at a half hour of dark anyway. It is always possible to persuade yourself. Anyway,  we have found when trekking in Spain that, on normal walking routes we improve on the time. Usually we will walk an hours trek in 45 minutes. With this calculation we would get back in daylight. We continued.

The path was good, we were moving quickly and the route seemed obvious….until.

Somehow we lost it, it disappeared.  We retraced our steps nothing. We had to move on. We found a sheep track going in the right general direction and pushed on through the gorse and bracken.

We kept close to the cliff, but no sign of the proper path. Had we lost too much time?

We continued through meadows and more gorse and eventually found a path. No sign this was the correct one though. It headed back towards the cliff and then descended down towards the sea.

The sea was amazingly powerful. The full force of the Atlantic buffeting the rocks.

And we walked precariously just a few feet away, occasionally the spray hitting us from the sea being picked up by the wind.

We had been following an old man for sometime, assuming he was walking the same route. It gave us comfort knowing that it was unlikely he would want to be walking at night. Little did we know he would be settling in for the night at his little shack, probably to do some fishing. We continued onwards, once again unsure.

The sea finds any weakness in the rock, opening it up, eroding it away. The sea would then surge up these slots it had created with a deafening roar.

We have no idea what could have caused these amazing forms, presumably a change in the hardness of the rock.

Although the overall terrain remained constant…The landscape continually threw us surprises. Canyons that had to be negotiated. They had started small, requiring a small diversion, however each one taking time to walk around.

We had stopped next to one, thinking we would drop into it and up the other side. No such luck, we had to back track and head up and around it. Someone seemed to be playing games with us. We were past the point of no return, we would just have to keep going forward.

The geology also continued to surprise us. This was further inland, so must be created by wind and rain erosion.

The next canyon was even bigger, over a hundred metres deep. This time a small path snaked down the side, past another eroded rock face of sandstone.

It was even more impressive from the canyon floor. You cannot even make out the path we had used to get down.

The next obstacle took us back to the waters edge, before we had to scramble up this rock face. From a distance it looked almost vertical and quite intimidating. It was only when you were up close could you see a sensible easy route up it.

We started meeting some people. Were we getting closer to the finish. The landscape was also beginning to change, less harsh.

As the sun began to set we had reached civilisation, with about half an hour to spare. We were physically and mentally exhausted, but it had been worth it, the ever changing landscape, the challenges, the coast, the sea. Everything a good walk needs, in abundance.

We still had to find Dora though, past the port and through the town.

27 km our longest walk to date. Welcome to Spain.

GDR