Rumbo al Norte – Day 9: Gaztelugatxe
Somehow (don’t ask me how) we found out about this place. So after visiting Bilbao, with its Old Town, the market and the Guggenheim museum, we got back into the car and drove about 40mins towards the ocean.
We parked and were slightly unsure as to where to go. And then we saw the sign. 35 mins to the Sanctuary of Saint Juan. About 1,3km. I was slightly confused, however, because I had seen the photos of the place and it was definitely somewhere on the water – how were we supposed to get there from all the way up here?
The answer was simple. Walk all the way down to sea level on a slippery, muddy path with wooden stairs (we always opted for the mud; it was much less slippery than the steps) that went down at a 8% slope. Once down, walk 231 steps back up to the top of the island where the sanctuary was.
Ok.
Here goes the photostory of what happened, with a sparse amount of text.
From the top, the views were extraordinary. Since we had started the trek in the late afternoon, we decided to wait until sunset and then walk back.
There’s the church, which was closed, a sheltered area with a roof, seats and tables (for bad weather, I suppose) and a toilet that is just a closed space with a hole that runs out on the cliff. It’s really something to go see if you’re up there!
The walk down wasn’t bad.
We were, as have always been on this trip except for that afternoon in Oviedo, exceptionally lucky with the weather. The route would have been unmanageable with the rain.
When we were on the bridge, the light was perfect to test slow shutter speed. Here are my very first attempts at the swirls of time.
Boyfriend insisted we leave before it became completely dark. If he hadn’t been there, I would have stayed until the very last drop of light and would have had to walk up the slippery path in the pitch dark.
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Together with Nicole Duplaix, Chair of the IUCN-SSC Otter Specialist Group , I wrote a book all about otters and how wonderful they are. Check it out We Love Otters
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