El Camino de la Cabra (The Way of the Goat)

la cabra

We have been so fortunate to be adopted by A & L’s family here in Bilbao.  Younger brother J called us up yesterday and asked if we would be interested in a hike in the mountains near Bilbao on Sunday.  Of course we would!  He described the hike as ‘rugged’ but not too ‘challenging’.

Hi rang precisely at 8:45 (we are finding that this is a very punctual culture) and we were off.  On the way we picked up two hiking buddies and it was quickly clear that Sunday adventures were common among these three friends.  We drove about 45 minutes west of Bilbao, which took us outside of the Basque country, along the Atlantic Coast.

The general location is indicated on this map to the left of Islares and above Orinon.

The trek by car

Zooming in a bit we can see more detail of the area we hiked.

The region

The car was parked near the highway (right near the “160″ symbol) and we hiked north from there.

The region is known as “Las Hoyas del Monto Solpico”.  My iphone app tells me that “hoya” is “basin” and that’s particularly appropriate.  The roughly circular patterns seen between the highway and the ocean are deep bowls in the terrain.

The google images don’t really show it, but the hoyas are very high above the ocean.  Our destination was a high rock formation known as Los Ojos (the eyes) which are to tunnels through a high ridge that ‘look out’ over the ocean.  Like this:

Los Ojos from across la hoya

The terrain was exceptionally rugged, not unlike the limestone ridges we often hiked in Central Pennsylvania.   Once we cleared the deciduous forest, we emerged into a strange terrain of low scrub, loose (and very sharp) limestone, goats and, oh yes, vultures.  Lots and lots of vultures.  Made you wonder how many hikers got into trouble there.

If this view doesn’t focus your attention, I don’t know what will.

Greeting visitors into the domain

The view from, and through, the eye was spectacular.  Here are a few of the shots we took from up there.

Looking through the eye of a mountain

Nice beach...

We tried to bushwhack our way down to the beach from the top (by the way, I’m pretty sure that the Spanish word for “bushwhack” is “booshwak”) but to no avail. Too rugged for the wimpy Americanos who were along for the ride.  We came across a young couple who were kind enough to take a shot of the entire party:

The happy group

Much more to share about this adventure, but I’ll leave that for another posting.

Week II of the energy course begins tomorrow.  Time for some rest.

BSGG

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