Mugarra - Basque Country, Spain

[matt_outandabout]

Family holidays saw us one week in the Basque Country and one week in the Picos de Europa.

A few thoughts before the hill walk report: the ferry from Plymouth to Santander (22hrs) or Portsmouth to Bilbao (28hrs, slow boat) was a wonderful, slow way of travel. Huge numbers of whale and dolphin. Reasonable value compared to flight and hire car - and meant our bikes went with us. We self catered throughout.

Routes are somewhat challenging sometimes, it seems that most guides focus on long-distance and hill passes, rather than actual summits. I found that following paths marked on Komoot was the best option - and common sense. Cycling - roads were excellent, but off-road was 'hit and miss'. Again it seems much mountain biking is very steep, long distance, farm track and non-technical, and the more 'gnar' cycles were overgrown post pandemic. We had two excellent MTB rides in Basque country (try https://www.basquemtb.com/ for information and guiding), one decent ride above Potes and one awful ride above Potes...


Week 1 - based out of Mutriku (nice tourist town) / Ondarra (locals fishing port - ace beaches) area.

Mugarra - https://www.summitpost.org/mugarra/499509

936m high limestone peak, with a colony of over 60 griffon vultures (average 2.5-3m wing span!) in the Urikola Nature Park - http://www.urkiola.net/

We set off from the parking in the village centre of Mañaria. It was earlier morning - we were up at the col by the time the heat of the day kicked in. No water on the route, we were glad of taking what seemed a surplus.
Spain - Basque and Picos 2022 by Matt, on Flickr

The steep road and track up the valley was easy to navigate but seriously steep in places.

Spain - Basque and Picos 2022 by Matt, on Flickr

Spain - Basque and Picos 2022 by Matt, on Flickr

Breaking out onto open hill saw us surrounded by the hill horses and cattle - and growing views.
Spain - Basque and Picos 2022 by Matt, on Flickr

A steep scramble, past the local goats, saw us through the local 'stumpy oak' woodland and break onto open ridge.
Spain - Basque and Picos 2022 by Matt, on Flickr

Spain - Basque and Picos 2022 by Matt, on Flickr

The ridge proved challenging to stay on the top of, but with many paths and terrific views for the last few hundred metres.
Spain - Basque and Picos 2022 by Matt, on Flickr

Spain - Basque and Picos 2022 by Matt, on Flickr

Spain - Basque and Picos 2022 by Matt, on Flickr

The ridge to the north has been climbed / descended, but looks to have a fair amount of scrambling and more worrying a local indicated the quarry had blocked access to the farm paths that were marked on our map.

It was time to head down - and we were treated to Griffon Vulture fly-bys, close enough for mrs_oab to work out that she didn't want to be left alone with birds twice her size who she swears were licking lips...
Spain - Basque and Picos 2022 by Matt, on Flickr

[Sgurr]

Looks a great part of the world. Never been.

[matt_outandabout]

It is very fine!

Some lovely Munro-sized peaks, don't let the summit foliage distract! We found them quiet, a good few paths and really impressive views.

We did some evening walks on 600-700m hills around our village, and they too were excellent.

Only negatives: the Spanish do like a path that goes straight up and down the fall-line and some of the thorns...!