Our last few days in France were lovely and hot. We cycled through Biarittz, Saint-Jean-de-Luz and Hendaye was our last town in France.

The only way into Spain was either via a major road or a 150 km detour. We decided to take the main road. It was awful. It was like riding on a motorway. Trucks and cars whizzing by at horrendous speeds. I wasn’t sure we should even be on that road.

We are now cycling (i.e. pushing our bikes up the hills) along the coastal route, well away from the main roads. I’m giving it a minimum of 3 days before I decide to catch the train out of here!

On the positive side the wine is very cheap (as long as you don’t mind it in a carton!). As cyclists we are very excited about 1 litre cartons of wine that only cost 55c. It means it is much lighter to carry than a bottle.

We really need to cut down on our weight if we want to continue in Spain. We checked the panniers today and are carrying approximately 3 kilos in food alone! So we really need to eat some.

We may backtrack to France if the hills and roads get too much for us. It’s not much point carrying on if we can’t cycle up the hills and if we’re not enjoying it. We might look at doing Spain another time on a credit card – which means we pack a credit card, a change of clothes and a toothbrush, and stay in hotels and eat out.

Last night we had our first tapas. They call it Pinchos here in the Basque country. They are laid out on the bar and you nibble while drinking your beer. Some bars have gourmet pinchos, and some have just sardines and olives, or ham on bread. We opted for a bar with gourmet pinchos and they were yummy.

I have uploaded some more photos on facebook.