38 - Between a weird rock and a nice place

Saturday, 13 January 2024

The weather forecast for today showed some downright pleasant temperatures and I'm glad for it. I slept in but I hit the road after a stop by the bakery around the block for a chocolatine and a sandwich. Today's destination: the mountain of Jaizkibel and the town of Hondarribia nestled at it's foot.

Jaizkibel was pointed out to me during my visit to Biarritz as one of the three peaks of interest in the area, the others being La Rhune/Larrun (which I hiked back in December) and Les Trois Couronnes. Jaizkibel is located just past the border with Spain, there's actually am interesting sandwiching of cities around the border: Hendaye, Irun, and Hondarribia are all situated around the mouth of the Bidasoa river joining the Bay of Biscaye. A look at the map showed that my hike is actually a good distance from the downtown of Hondarribia, so I set my GPS for a parking lot in the town(?) of Guadalupe.

The loop I'd found on All Trails didn't actually climb to a peak of Jaizkibel, instead it did a nice tour of the coast. So I improvised the start of the hike by climbing the ridge towards a high point, I'm glad I did because the view from up there was really great! I could see snowcapped mountains in the distance, down to the Spanish coast (who knows, maybe as far as Bilbao??), and all the French coast (I wasn't sure if it was a trick of the light or if I was seeing land all the way round to the horizon). I'll just point out that Basque hiking trails don't employ many switchbacks regardless of the slope, so attacking the ridge worked up quite an appetite. While enjoying the view, I munched on my sandwich before completing the rest of my detour and rejoining the originally planned trail.

No better way to start the hike than by attacking a slope head-on

La côte espanol!

Various towers / remnants of towers dot the ridge line that runs towards the peak of Jaizkibel

A great view of Henday, Irun, and Hondarribia from here.

You can see Larrun to the right and the French coast curving off to the left to form the northern edge of the Bay of Biscaye / Bahia de Bizkaia

Larrun to the left and then a few snowcapped mountains in the distance before completing the frame with the three crowns.

Walking the ridge; there were plenty of horses just grazing about up here (I think they're called pottok)

A monument, though I couldn't read the inscription

The trail wound my way down to the water through a new growth pine forest. I noticed several wooden booths stationed along the trail; at first I thought they were bird observation posts but after seeing a guy with a shotgun over his shoulder and a dog with a hunting collar, I think these booths might be for observation and then some.

Oh neat, les rochers emmentals / swiss cheese rocks!

A nice little river with little bowls in the stone

A nice little walk along a flysch path

Abandoned hunting cabin?

I suppose one must first observe the bird to hunt it

At the waterfront, I was greeted with an alien landscape. The rock here was taking on weird shapes and forms, after my hike I was informed the spheres were paramoudras and the spherical cavities were taffonis (I'd called them swiss cheese rocks / les rochers emmentals). The trail wasn't particularly well marked in this area but I managed to scramble my way over slippery rocks to continue.

Imagine being 1cm tall and having to navigate canyons/badlands like this

Convenient little planters in this rock

In my mind, this is the geologic equivalent of poking the jellyfish on the beach with a stick

I think I found the stones of all those cowardly guys

I suppose this hike is not recommended for those with a fear of holes / trypophobia

The barnacles add an interesting texture here

I'm getting alien egg vibes from these things

What do you mean "that's where the trail continues"?

Saying hasta la vista to the area with the most pronounced paramoudras

But still plenty of tafonis to be had

Ah, yes, just need to find a way around this 4 foot deep pond to climb back up to the trail

Made it!

For the rest of the trail, I rubber-banded with a couple groups who's dogs would use me as the outer bound of the range with their humans. But that ended when we crossed a stream and the dogs went to town splashing and swimming. There was a sign along the trail that explained whaling was quite big in the Basque régions for a long time (my Biarritz guide had mentioned the old port was originally for whaling and this sign said the Basque phrase "apalzek hobeto" (the priests are better than me) was used by Newfoundland whalers well into the 19th century).

A nice little bay to launch whaling boats from

The stream at the bottom right was too irresistible for the dogs and this is where we parted ways

The rest of the hike had more flysch but the occasional pocket of tafonis

The last segment of the trail was a trek through a pottok field (a bunch of horses just minding their business) and then hoofing it along the road back to the parking lot. I made it back to my car just in time for watching sunset color the bay of Txingudi.

You want to know what really gets my goat?

I'm sure the view from higher up the mountain would be nicer, but at this point I was pre-occupied with drinking a full liter of water

I made my way back down the mountain and parked next to the old town of Hondarribia, which has preserved it's walls very well! A few pintxos and a glass of Rioja rejuvenated me enough to do my language lessons and then walked the length of the town. Overall, I think Hondarribia is a very charming city; the choice pintxos may not be as good as in San Sebastian but I think the plethora of Basque architecture gives Donostia a run for its money.

The canal just next to the free parking lot

The fortified old town has an impressive approach

Arma Plaza, I liked the differently colored buildings with the wooden balconies

The castle/palace that's now a hotel/cafeteria

Interesting shutters

L'appétit vient en mangeant

Plenty of people out fishing in the darkness; they were using little green or red lights at the tips of the poles

I could just barely make out the lighthouse at Biarritz

I walked back through what appeared to be the busier bar/restaurant strip of town where I stopped again for a light snack before doing a complete walkabout of the walled city section. The narrower cobbled streets go well with the decorative buildings and occasional plaza, even at night. The city felt both alive but also not crowded: plenty of quiet streets and parks to contrast with laughter and voices seated outside a tavern.

Mmm, txistora and a ham croquette

The Basque style is quite charming

The other gate into the walled city

Quiet streets but they never felt abandoned

I think one of the lofts up there is for sale! I also liked that so many of these balconies included wires or devices for hanging clothes to dry

I ended up having dinner at a place called Mika; from what I could tell there wasn't a sit-down restaurant menu for the places in Hondarribia and that they've all taken to offering main plates on top of their pintxos offerings. I approached the bar where another couple was waiting with a menu in Castellan/Euskal, when the barkeep/server asked me what I wanted, I was trying to say I wanted to sit down to eat dinner when I said "Para comer". It took a few minutes for the hilarity to sink for me when after hearing my answer, she immediately withdrew the Castellan/Euskal menu and replaced it with a French/English one as well as pointed me to a table near the bar 🤣 I guess my Spanish accent needs some work.

Delicia de costilla: labeled as a medieval tapas, I think it was a croquette made from shortrib meat and included a syringe with beetroot syrup

El Mika: a little dip into the gastronomic world - breaded shrimp with seaweed salad and fish roe on a green mayo. I'm not sure what the white powder was 🤔

Flor de alcachofa: artichoke flower with thin slices of pork jowl

It was a long day in Spanish Basque country but I thoroughly enjoyed this little adventure. A big thumbs up to both hiking at Jaizkibel and for relaxing in Hondarribia!

So long, Hondarribia