The Ham Nomads

14 Jan 2015. <ES> Gorbeia, & Vitoria-Gasteiz, Araba/Álava —

We left our aire at Berriozar (Pamplona) to drive westwards. We were avoiding a toll road, so ended up on a few rather back roads. This is never unwelcome, as we get to see little villages that would otherwise pass by unnoticed on the Autovía. We passed or went through a few little villages, and we could see the snow-capped mountains off in the distance — in the direction we were headed. An omen for the future?

We are in the Basque region of Spain, so a lot of the signs are in the Basque language. This is not a problem until you need the loos -- in Spanish, 'baños' or 'aseos', but in Basque, 'komunak'. This came to our notice when we paused of for a Macca's stop (to power the computer) in Gorbeia, where ALL the signage was in Basque! This was near a large (read 'huge') supermarket, and we were able to pick up a couple of things before departing.

We then went down via some back roads, and more little villages (including one with the very Basque name of Mendarozketa — in Basque you get a lot of hard and strange consonants!) We then went down into Vitoria-Gasteiz, the capital of the Basque region of Spain, where a large aire near the city proper was on offer. We got in there at sunset — a glorious red sunset — found our way into the official aire section (with about 3 other vans), but we noticed that a lot of the rest of the large carpark was populated with vans! Suzie enjoyed watching the many dog-walkers on promenade past us. Anyway, we settled in for a quiet night — only to have a slight interruption when a garbage truck that had come in to clear the bins — they're very efficient about sanitation here — got into trouble and had to get a tow!

Distance driven — today, 75 miles ( 120 km ); to date, 10,961 miles ( 17,640 km )