Semi Desert With The Heat Rising

We didn’t waste time, we used it.

Wednesday May 11th

Leaving Pamplona turned out to be a bit tricky. Yesterday, on the bikes, we couldn’t find our way in. Today we couldn’t find our way out! All roads, every road, led to Pamplona. At one point we found ourselves heading to France!! It took us 40 minutes to get on to the N121 heading south and there were still signs pointing us back to Pamplona. We both needed a cuppa by the time we reached Olite (Erriberri in Basque).

*A giant egg by the city walls in Olite*?

A short wander down the narrow alleyways and in and out through the old fortified walls, led us to a lovely café in the Plaza de Carlos III El Noble in the mediaeval section of town.

*The Plaza de Carlos III El Noble, Olite*

Continuing south we passed hundreds of wind turbines and fields of solar panels before reaching Arguedas. From there we followed the signs to the national park passing lots of pens full of bulls in every size and colour, all looking like they were ready to head to a bullring somewhere. It was now 26c under a cloudless sky and it felt hot!

The Bardenas Reales turned out to be worth the visit. The lady in the information office gave us a map and pointed us in the right direction. A 34km drive took us around a semi desert area of cliffs and pointy bits on a well-graded dirt road. Just as the lady said, it took us about 1.5 hours to do the tour around the Bardena Blanca Baja and we could have taken hundreds of photos of the ever-changing scenery.

The temperature had reached 30c by the time we arrived at Camping Bardenas back north in Villafranca. Our bodies were cooking. Having not had a good summer in Sydney this year, we’re not used to this heat. The portable fan wouldn’t work and even with all the windows open, we couldn’t get a breeze through Reggie until nearly 10pm.

It was *occasionally* *windy in Bardenas Reales*

*Laura amongst the rocks at Bardenas Reales*

*Laura getting into Reggie at Bardenas Reales*

The day ended with two more problems. No.1. The discovery that we had no can-opener on board, so tuna was off the menu tonight. No.2. Fifteen Frenchmen on enormous motorbikes had turned up in the late afternoon and camped all around us. And two of them were in the ladies bathroom when I went over there to have my shower. I had to wait until after 9pm when they all went off for dinner. We’re hoping tomorrow starts and ends a little better………