Day 27 - The Going Down

We awoke rather warmer than we otherwise would have been, and praised the world for radiators. We left the campsite after paying (very important) and got lost. Stupid bloody Spainish road system.

Finally I figure out where we went wrong (bad Spainish signing was to blame) and we cycled up and out of Leukanberri. As we climbed higher and higher we could begin to see snow appear in small corners of fields, then across most of the field, until finally our vision was just bathed in white. The going was easy however, the roads not too steep, and we reached the peak of the pass without too much trouble at all. This road had not been swept clean of snow and I enjoyed making patterns in the slush (kept my mind off the stupidity of the venture). We saw a huge rat like creature, road-kill, in the middle of the road (it looked like it had been there for sometime), but I don't have a clue what it could be, very strange. At the peak of the pass (780m) we stopped to take a few pictures before cycling on (I love it when you reach the top because the way down is ... well ... down). However, once more the cold ripped into us, and I can safely say that it was even colder than it was the night before. The hill was so steep going down, and we carry so much weight, that there is nothing you can do but coast, which is not a thing that makes heat. Not helping matters was that we were still in marginally wet clothes from the day before so all in all a bad going down.

Not looking to try that again in a hurry we quickly popped into a restaurant in a large, ugly town that seemed to exist merely for the purpose of being in a place where three roads intersect. Got some chocolate (instant make-good) and warmed up over some coffee. Danny ordered some calamari tapas for us whilst I went to the loo. He had asked for two orders of calamari tapas and was given 3 rings of calamari, which begs the question: "What do you get when you order one?" We didn't need to share anyway as Danny had mistakenly thought it was one of the two orders and eaten them all before I got back. Wouldn't have mattered anyway, I was waiting for bigger lunches than that.

We followed the main road into Pamplona and ate lunch alongside the main square before sitting in a cafe for an hour or so to warm up again. The weather was starting to clear and we as we looked south we could see clear skies. Yay!

We finally reached Olite after dark and found the campsite thanks to good (if somewhat oddly place) signage. For the campsite in Olite was not in Olite, nor on the road to Olite. But such are things in Spain. Slept well to a peaceful night free of rain, wind or snow.