Boondock Puffins

The journey from Mendexa (a little town in the province of Biscay in Spain, settled between Donostia-San Sebastian and Bilbao) along the north coast heading westwards was one that we thought would be easy, quiet and uneventful. We were wrong. It was late August and, after an accidental lie in til 7:30am, we awoke in 27°C, parked up efficiently and got on the road. Unfortunately, the temperature just continued to climb. By 10am, it was sitting at a mean 37°C with no breeze to speak of.

Given the sweltering heat (please remember that we were also still wearing full motorbike gear, and despite absolutely loving our Halvarssons summer jackets, with no wind at all, it was disgustingly hot as soon as we stopped or slowed down at all), we decided to keep to the coast as much as possible.

As we went around Bilbao, it hit 42°C.

Decided to call it a day and grateful that we will probably never be particularly organised travellers who know their time limits or where they’re heading in advance, we headed for a campsite that said it was on a beach.

Lesson from today: Google Maps took us a dodgy way, and Tom decided to trust this over the sign posts… we went down a single track road made entirely of soft soft sand. Eventually for the last kilometre as it became deep, dry super fine sand, I got off and walked at intervals to push at times, and to make life easier for Tom. By the time we arrived at the campsite we were both drenched in sweat. This is one of those times where we wondered briefly why we’d chosen to travel by motorbike and not a car with the luxury of air conditioning!

The campsite reception took pity on us and squeezed us into a small pitch. We’d already paid before we saw both the plot and the supposed ‘beach’ – the campsite backed onto an estuary, and so the only area to walk was just mud and weed and smelt depressingly of feces. So much for hiding out at the sea to escape the heat. After setting up camp, we headed back to Lidl to shop – air conditioning could not have been appreciated more. We spent a merry half hour perusing the frozen section and enjoying the only coolness we’d feel all day.

In the afternoon, we went for a walk along the stinky river before realising that moving was only making us both significantly too hot. Instead we tried to sit restfully at our tent in the shade but now found ourselves set upon by flies. This was incredibly frustrating when we were already super hot and sweaty and fed up.

Ultimately, we decided to console ourselves with a walk to an ice cream, and sit and get some work done. Early dinner and early bed seemed like a good plan, with a plan for the following day to find somewhere where maybe, just maybe, we could stay for two days!

It turned out that an early night when your only shelter is a tent that’s been in full sun all day and warmed up nicely to resemble a greenhouse in the Sahara in temperature. Lying silently without moving and without sleeping bags or blankets was the only solution… one of those camping moments that you don’t see on social media and one that makes you question your travelling choices! Or maybe just one that makes you appreciate the small luxuries of day to day usual existence.