Alfonzo
and Natasha's house is cool, rebuilt using recycled stone and wooden
beams from demolished old building on their section and Alfonso has
done a lot of the work himself. They have two lovely wee girls who
were a little shy at first but then decided we don't bite. Paul (his
builder friend) and Alfonzo were installing new ranchslider in front
patio so Kent got an opportunity to help. Other than the work on the
door we had a fairly restful and lazy day, the first day in a long
time that we have actually gone nowhere. We really enjoyed our time
with both Natasha and Alfonso and talked a lot about our views of the
world past, present and future. They are both world travellers as
well.
After
a lazy morning we finally headed towards France, off the beaten track
day today, taking many small county roads suggested by Alfonso. One
road took us past the tops of hills in a valley like castles and in
and out of Cantabria provence. Negotiated our way around the outside
of the huge city of Bilbao heading for the coast, the temperature is
much warmer - 21ºC at 4.30pm. We are now in Basque country –
winding, green, scenic coastal roads like the roads to Piha. Big
golden sand beaches and cliffs falling to rocky shores, now and then
a surfer riding the waves. They have seats along the coast for people
to sit and admire the views but no places to park the cars they come
in. Several of the towns we passed were jampacked with cars filling
every available parking spot. We ended up parking for the night
behind a service station, the only private spot on the whole route.
The
29th dawned a cloudy day and it became very windy when we
stopped for supplies in St Jean de Luz, France. We got lost a couple of
times on the road but ok in the end, stopped to view a confidence
course strung up in the trees – it looked very challenging, great
fun and hard work, all ages were left to do the course by themselves,
clipped by harness to a safety line but with no nets below and
changing lines up in the trees by themselves. Stopped for the night
beside the very picturesque Lac de Leon where after dark it started
to rain.
To
see our photos http://cjb.pascoe.net.nz/
(click on or copy and paste into browser)
