Really, I'm a city girl through and through. I like going on hikes that include large army green and marigold yellow signs that say exactly where I should go, when I will get there and whether or not there's a bathroom on the way. I like getting exercise and seeing great views of mountains and rivers, as long as the trail isn't too hard. The classic National and State park signs in Oregon always make me feel nostalgic, though I don't know why, as I was always in a gym or on a field during my summers as a child. Hiking makes me feel like the movies I guess. A little escape. BUT, just enough to tighten my glutes and show off that nice line between my hammy and my quad that runs from hip to knee-ish.
Yet, I knew, when we decided to move back to Spain, that hiking was the key to connecting with Inaki's mother. We were both excited to accompany her on the many hiking trips she'd described to us over the 3 years we lived in Portland. On some tours, she hopped on a hiking bus and went with a group, just like Mountain Girl would, out into the wilderness and wandered all day. Our first trip with Dori was to an old arms factory in Orbaizeta, the Cueva de Arpea and lunch in Sorogain.
We piled into the car at around 8:30 and cruised up into the Pyrenees in Dori's VW Caddy. Inaki rocked his typical hiking tee, "Running Sucks."
I always get car sick if we're driving in the Pyrenees for too long. How snobby does that sound, "driving in the Pyrenees, cheerio, pip, pip." I forgot my shades on this particular day and the combo of squinting all the time and the twists and turns was making me nauseous. Not a good start for Mountain Girl.
When we arrived at the old arms factory in Orbaizeta, I had to get out and walk for a while before taking in the view. Here's what we saw, the 18th century ruins of the factory.
We also bought some delicious cheese and ate a bit of fruit before getting back in the car. I felt better and didn't even puke, wahoo!
We headed deeper, or higher into the Pyrenees and hit the french border in the mountains a few miles after the arms factory. It was just beautiful and one of the few times I literally have felt like I was on top of the world. There was nothing at a higher altitude than we were, but the sky. A bunch of huge white cows were roaming the plateau on the mountain, similar to those in Roncal I described earlier. They wouldn't get out of the road and we had to honk and wait, honk and wait. We also saw a herd of horses galloping around. I know this all sounds like some kind of French, My Little Pony meets Charlotte's Web dream world, but it was fo real! Pics to prove.
After another mile en camino, we parked on the side of the gravel road and prepped for the "hike." As Inaki and Dori put their boots on, I explored the mountainside, now in France, on my own. At the top of the hill near our car there was a sort of monument to victims of a fire that happened there in the year 2000. Nothing that anyone knew about, or that was in the newspaper, just something the family down the hill felt was necessary.
So beautiful. I fumbled down the hillside, touched by life, and we were on our way to the Cueva de Arpea. Inaki says it's a very unique formation in the Pyrenees because of all the layers you can see within the rock. It was created due to a crash in tectonic plates. Walking to get to it was like being in the Shire and on a nice defined path too.
And here's the cave.
After hitting the cave is when the trouble started. The path ended and I thought, "ok, we'll head back to the car and get going to the next spot." But no. Dori's Mountain Girl kicked in, who is much different from my Mountain Girl. Dori's Mountain Girl is more like Wo-Man vs. Wild. We walked down from the cave and saw that the path continued, so we kept walking. In a few minutes, we hit sort of a barbed wire fence with a semi-gate in it, but not really. We had to shimmy and twirl just to get through it. On the other side of the fence, Dori announced, "here's the path!" and beckoned us. Her version of a path was high grass that had a few footprints in it. Yet, we kept on. As she lunged up a hill, my tall self was slipping, sliding and struggling. I heard her saying to Inaki, "we'll just walk up here and then down into the forest, it'll be great!" I looked up and saw no path, just taller grass and more slope.
At the top of the hill, there was a pit with trees in it, which was "the forest," but there was no clear entry or, more importantly, exit, and no army green sign. Inaki turned to me and said, "what do you think, should we go?" For once, I had a straight answer, no discussion required. "No." And we got the heck out, though Dori was disappointed. We're still at the point in our relationship that she won't make me do things I don't want to. I rue the day that's not the case. So, thank goodness, we headed back to the car.
At this point, we were hungry. We drove down the mountain and found a spot to eat lunch along the river in Sorogain. It was a hot day, so the shade and cool felt amazing as we munched on pork loin and grilled poblano pepper sandwiches and gulped cold beer. Awesome.
Inaki and I weren't quite satisfied with the amount of exercise we'd gotten and Dori dropped us off to walk a 4 mile chunk of the Camino Santiago, my first! It was so cool. The spirit even touched us enough to start singing a little gospel, or perhaps it was heat stroke. But, that blog is for another day. I hope for more days like this one and more exploration to come soon!
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