Category Archives: Out and About in Navarra

Overlooked Too : Gerinda by day and by night

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Jonathan > The first day not taken up with building work, I drove up the NA-132 to the head of the valley, and at the summit, turned off to the north and steeply uphill again to the Sierra de Gerinda. Parking by the first turbine and set off along the ridge road through the turbines, and onward into the hills and forests. It was already mid afternoon when I set out, but it was so lovely to be up in the hills that I just kept walking for two hours and more – until the sun had set.

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Overlooked

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J > Browsing through our Google Photos, as a distraction from the raging storm outside, I soon found myself basking in the reflected sunshine of my trip to Navarra last October-November.  To my surprise, I discovered a batch of photos I’ve overlooked in posting about that trip.  It was the first Sunday in November, and as it turned out, the sunniest day before I returned to Scotland four weeks later.  To be fair, it was a cold day : as in the Outer Hebrides, the clearest skies are associated with cold winds from the north-west. But it was sunny and dry, and I’m used to wrapping up against the cold. It turned out to be the best day out of my trip to Navarra!

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The Cats of Castillo Nuevo

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J > This year my time in Navarra has been much cloudier and wet than last year : in fact it’s been exceptionally wet.  But yesterday was a cheerful day of clear skies, warming sunshine, and – if barely above freezing, it was defnitely dry.  Perfect for a day out exploring : I’ve scarcely more than a week left before I must return to Scotland. I headed to the Basque far north east of Navarra, about an hour’s drive away, a land of jagged sierras, soaring viaducts, dry barancos, narrow twisting gorges, vultures, circling overhead, roads switching sides across roaring mountain rivers …

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Rooftops and Chimneys

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In Uist, roofs are kept low, simple and solid : anything else will result in disaster.  TV antennae are installed within the roof void.  As for Navarra, well anything goes, from higgeldy-piggeldy ancient, to the self-conscious contemporary.

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To Navarra, Non-Stop

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J > It’s already two weeks since I travelled here to San MartĂ­n de Unx, Navarra, from the Outer Hebrides.  I’ve travelled on my own this time.  This year, no-one was availabe to the boots of us both. There’s building work to our house here in Navarra that needs my supervision ; so D has stayed home to look after all the animals (and lots of other things, besides, I hasten to add – before D does!).

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Black Dog Here, Black Dog There

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J > Here’s Lur with our grandson Enaut (now nearly two years old), waiting for Catherine and I to finish fiddling with phones and set off for our walk up round the old castle ground up at the top of the hill, here in San MartĂ­n de Unx.  But first we need to put shoes on Enaut!

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Navarra Autumn 2018 – Seat Arona

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Jonathan & Denise > Here’s the second patchwork of images from our holiday in Navarra – named after the Seat Arona car we hired for the second month. Family This is what we come here for : Torre de Peña – Antiguo Torre is Spanish for ‘tower’, but Peña is from the Aragonese language – and therefore ultimately from Latin, and means a ‘rocky place’. [The Pennines of northern England, and the Appenines of Italy both have the same linguistic root.]  The village of Torre de Peña is to be found east of the village of Caseda and south of … Continue reading →