Daily Journal

Day 1 ~ 6th August 2000

Bilbao to Igorre
Summary ~ Day 2

We arrived at Bilbao's Sondika airport 5 mins early, full of excitement and apprehension for what lay ahead. We started with a steep descent only to be followed by a steep climb, and half an hour later we were a few hundred meters from our original starting place, but on the other side of the airport perimeter fence.

Now we set off in earnest, along the old road to Vitoria, which after quickly leaving the town settled down to some long steady climbs and seemingly very short descents through some beautiful Basque mountain scenery. In many ways it was idilic with eagles soaring above us. We were startled at first by the continual honking of horns, which we later discovered were just people "cheering us along".

We eventually stopped for lunch, an excellent "menu del dia" which cost 1500 its including wine.
The exit from Bilbao on our first afternoon.



 
After lunch, we hauled ourselves back into the saddle, and continued on to the small town of Igorre, which was about 31kms from our start point. We checked into the only accommodation in town, the very pleasant Hotel Arantza **. By this time we were shattered, in part due to our almost complete lack of sleep the night before. We still had more than 700 kms to go, a daunting thought!
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