Basque country and the north of Spain

Today you find me sitting on a park bench in Burgos, the sun is shining since a few days and we have around 20°C, perfect for cycling. After I had some intense rides the past days I want to take it easy today and enjoy the beautiful trees and cityscape of Burgos.

Everytime I am sitting down to write my diary I realize how many things are happening throughout a short period of time, yet most of what I am doing day in, day out is a rhythmic repetition of cycling, café americano, stretching, eating and sleeping.

I hope you will also get to enjoy some of the beauty I am encountering, enjoy!

good bye France

When I ended my last episode, I had a beautiful, calm and very demanding cycling day ahead of me. After the rain had stopped I was happy to continue. I had somehow thought that after my big collars I was over the toughest rides, but I was cycling through a REGION of mountains, not only a single one.

So my next level in the master class was waiting for me. The way up will be hard, there will be no special characteristics about the path, the weather is misty, you won’t feel any anger nor other great energetic states – just you, your bike, the road and your presence and what you make out of it. It was so calm on the street, I was covered in fog and saw only the next 50 meters, I felt every breath, every round of my feet around the pedals axis, with it the last mountains still in my legs. Every move I did had to come through my own power and every round I had to find joy despite the heavy and beaten up legs.

It had a very specific beauty, a bit like the zen gardens that are asking you to perfect the art of being present. After I had learned also that lesson I enjoyed the scenic ride, after the clouds cleared up and revealed ever more beauty of the Pyrenees.

The goal of the day was to reach Saint-Jean-Pied-the-Port, a small village in the mountains that marks the end of the french part of the pilgrims path towards Santiago the Compostela and the start of the northern trails of Spain. I somehow had a romantic pull towards that town and wanted to use it also for my transition to say good bye to the french part of my journey, but was left disappointed as that space was soooo touristic, there was more magic and divinity along my route than in that place, like it was with most of the hyped places. Well, it had a charming older part of the town, which is a big thing for all the pilgrims that start their walk here.

In order to find my next sleeping spot I moved on and asked a few people along the way if they would host me on their land. It was the first time I was rejected and it felt very weird to me to not find a home in the area of the pilgrimage. I got a bit frustrated with all that stuff, I felt more welcomed in any other place than in the midst of the most ‘important’ pilgrims path of Europe. As I was cycling on I hadn’t noticed that I crossed the border to Spain, so I cycled back to at least mark it with a picture.

hello Spain

After a long search I was very happy I found a good spot for the night with a bar in the surrounding, where I also took a rest the next day. It is always a bit challenging for me to sleep in spaces, where I didn’t ask for permission and that had me awake often through the night thinking someone would come and ask me to leave.

The break was great for me, I enjoyed again to take care of my household, washing my cloth under a little water tap, cooking good food, laying in the sun, stretching, shaving – all the important stuff you have to do on a rest day.

Speaking of food – I haven’t told you yet how much gifts I am receiving from our beautiful planet earth. I am glad I have awake eyes and know what you can pick and eat. I will hopefully make a whole post about my culinary journey of wild and garden supply I experience on the trip. But for now it were the chestnuts I found that spiced up my dayly lentil stew.

After the well deserved rest I was finally ready to be in Spain, precisely in the Basque country which had a very special quality to it. To read about the history and culture of this unique land and people is definitely worth it, as they have their own preserved language and cultural practices, yet this region held a lot of conflicts due to their wish to be an independent country from Spain.

I found out I was close to an old community project Lakabe that I got to hear of through the work of Bernd Müller, who supported them with his ecological knowledge and wisdom around water management. I decided to not visit them as their main languages are Euskera and Spanish, so for such a short visit it didn’t feel right to go there.

I was again fascinated by the architecture and specifically the houses in the countryside reminded me very much of my home even though it was for sure very different.

The landscape in the mountains and surrounding hills was still very impressive and soothing for my soul – I still don’t feel that kind of home when I am in the south of Portugal.

When you are cycling for such a long time it still feels very drastic when you enter another climatic zone. I thought I had more time from green, trees and mountains to a more southern, dry climate. But that wasn’t the case and so I was cycling the first kilometres like a shy child, looking couriously around, through a new landscape.

When I was feeling sad about the dried up waterfall that I met on the way I didn’t know yet it could get ever worse – I started to cycle through the first wounds of this summer – miles through destroyed land through agressive farming, and remaining patches of forest that burned down to ashes because of the heat and drought. I couldn’t even cry for what I saw, it was a catastrophe that froze all my feelings.

The chapter about water and the ecological crisis of our times is another one to be written, but it feels so important to say that we all have to invest time of our life’s to be part of the healing that wants and has to happen to our planet. To be cycling through just a fraction of our planet is enough to see that the way out has to be different than the way that led us into the crisis.

The following kilometres led me through a landscape that reminded me a lot of my new home, Portugal, with olive trees, dusty roads, a lot of clay and stones. Weirdly I didn’t feel like a stranger anymore.

The villages were set up different than I was used to, they were very densely built and there were hardly any satellites around, so I would cycle through lonely fields and then through also interesting looking villages.

I was still sharing my path with the pilgrims towards Santiago, but besides standing in lines to get a café I didn’t get in touch with them, most of the social life would happen in the albergues after a day of walking, but I chose to be in solitude with my tent.

That day was a special one for me, after a while I decided to challenge again my fasted state and thought to stay fasted for 100 kilometers. It went pretty well, I had a great feeling up until 95 kilometres. Then I had to make a difficult choice. I cycled into Logroño and as I turned around a corner I cycled into a hugely crowded street, they were just starting a week long festivitiy to celebrate the saint of the city. A group of people saw me looking around astounded and called me over to their table. They offered me local food, some wine… I couldn’t resist but to give up my challenge and follow this nice invitation. I thought the challenge could wait, that moment yet would probably never come back.

Tipsy and with a full stomach I left and searched for another place to fall asleep. A bit apart from the city I had found a nice lake with a beautiful park around, that was a rare sight in the otherwise dry area.

The next morning I started before sunrise, I had planned to meet the sun on my bike, and so I could enjoy the landscape in stunning colours.

It was another day of challenging myself, I thought to stay on the road from before sunrise and cycle into the night. It was a great feeling to move through the land knowing I would follow the sun’s rhythm for a whole day.

That day felt great, I again was gifted with many greetings from the universe that supported me all the time. I had several moments where I was gifted vegetables, once a farmer gifted me huge tomatoes, another one fresh pepper from the unfortunately huge monoculture fields, I found a patch with delicious green beans that I all together threw into my cooking pan in the night. The top notch were the hazelnuts and almonds I picked – it felt a bit like christmas with so many presents.

There are numerous ways to challenge you and keep you inspired when being on the road. I think I am not done yet with my creativity and the many limitations I have keep it growing. I am very curious what the next chapter will offer.

For now I feel I am very much enjoying the decompression on the outside and also inside myself. Next to the inner work I am doing I am also on my holidays charging my batteries and that’s what I am doing right now.

I spent nearly the whole afternoon typing this into my phone, I hope you are still reading and you didn’t get bored of all the stories.

Last but not least I want to celebrate that I cycled already 1.650 kilometres and as I planned it I would have around 970 kilometres left to reach Tamera.

Thanks for your patience and persistence to read through the text, I wish you a great day and hope this finds you well.

Many greetings

Eiko