Spain

San Sebastián is a seaside town with two main beaches, the larger beach being more touristy, they lie between quite a rugged coastline and in the middle of the two beaches a large statue overlooks the town. Both beaches had wide promenades. Also, not that we looked, but there were a few topless babes. We found a bungalow at a campsite called Orio Kanpina, in Orio. Driving there we encountered heavy sea mist dispute it being very warm and a bit annoying as it blocked our view of the coast line.

As we moved on the larger towns in this area are very industrial looking with many high rise apartment blocks of very plain architectural design, whereas the smaller villages in the countryside are very quaint and feature mainly white walls and terracotta tiled rooves. 

We have arrived in a small town called Jaca in a valley called Aragon, which is very near the Pyrenees Mountains which border France and Spain. There is a very harsh but beautiful landscape, with some similarities to the high country of Molesworth (loosely). It has been a bit of a challenge ordering food with the language again, bit of pot luck tonight, but we enjoyed the meal and the jug of Sangria. Camping again tonight, it was 31.5 degrees at 7.30 pm. 

Traveling on eastwards towards Barcelona, we decided to take a chance with the lesser known mountain route, through the Pyrenees. The landscape is very harsh, with sheer mountain faces which have large glacier like scars which are very spectacular. The valleys have many smaller villages, most of which have a mixture of very old and not so new buildings, including some type of tower or church in each village.  The larger towns are more picturesque than those we saw closer to the coast.  The rivers that run through the gorges have that colour of glacier fed water, though clear. 

There seems to be plenty of accommodation around as the area has a ski season, whitewater rafting as well as tramping.

Further down in the valleys the cattle have cowbells on, we stopped for a picture and the sound of the bells is quite charming. 

I have been instructed to record how excellent the tent is proving to be, especially as in Spain, the rain is a pain .... when camping.  However it held up beautifully without any leaks!