Day 43 - Pamplona to Uncastillo - Gorging in France ...Then Basquing in the Pyrenees - 2023

May 30, 2023

Day 43 - Pamplona to Uncastillo

A Piece of Paradise

The weather pattern over the last few days has been quite consistent; sunny mornings with light winds from the north and then clouds building in the afternoons culminating in thunder showers in the late afternoon. We got caught with this on the tail end of our ride into Pamplona two days ago and since the weather forecast was the same for today, we tried to get an earlier start to give us a better chance of getting the ride done before the rains came.

We actually made a good start, for us. We were down for breakfast (excellent spread) at 7:30 and were packed up and pedalling away shortly after 8:30.

Just as we were on the outskirts of Pamplona, congratulating ourselves on an early and efficient start, we had an unplanned but absolutely necessary diversion that cost us some precious time.

Today was day 30 on our phone plans, and they neeeded to be recharged, a very easy task if you have active data. Not so easy if you don’t! I had put a reminder to do this in our calendar for yesterday, but we both blew right past it! Fortunately we remembered now and we pulled into a nice park, found a bench in the shade, and went through the easy process of adding another 30 days onto each of our phones. Easy once you remember all your log in details! That took most of the time but after 20 minutes or so we were cycling away again, with fully stocked phones for the rest of the trip. We’re using the Orange Travel Europe e-sims and they have proven to be flawless and very easy to use. A little more expensive than what we could have got in a kiosk, but we had them all set up and ready to use before we left Canada, from the comfort of our own home, and the recharges have been very easy too, once you remember to do them.

Another shout out to Spain for their urban cycling infrastructure. Similar to our exit from San Sebastián, our ride out of Pamplona was on dedicated cycle infrstructure until we were well out of town. Our route for the day once again had a long stretch where we paralleled an Autoroute, this time the A-21. Although the autoroute was in view and was a little more noticeable than what we had coming into Paamplona, the national highway we were riding on, the NA 2420 was a full two lane road with large shoulders on both sides. The pavement was in excellent condition. The traffic was quite light too with only a few dozen roadies and one other tourer. Oh, I should have written ‘bike traffic’ as there was essentially NO motor vehicle traffic at all on this road, it was all on the Autoroute. The surrounding countryside was also very beautiful, We’ve transitioned from the lush green of the Galician coast to more open grasslands and fields but still with rolling hills and mountains.

We had these conditions for about 40 km’s until we turned onto the NA 127, which we had to share with a few cars, and one truck! After our nice picnic lunch (avo, hummus and red pepper wraps) beside the Aragon river in Zaragoza, we started the second significant climb of the day.

The first climb (about 300 m) was along the NA 2420 and the grades were a consistent 4-6 %, just enough to work up a light sweat. The second climb was 500 m, but we had about 20 km’s to get this in. Like the first climb the grades were gentle and consistent and we made good time to Sos del Rey, a beautiful ancient ‘castle town’ perched on a hill. SOS is one of the ‘Cinco Villagaes’ in this area, villages of particular beauty and historical significance. Uncastillo is one of these villages as well. From Sos, the climb steepens a bit and we were on the narrow single lane old road for about 5 km’s to reach the high point of the day at just over 900 m.

This was right at the time that the thunder started and we could see that the roads around Sos were a little wet. Maybe the rains had come and gone from here already … wishful thinking given that we were more or less surrounded by very dark clouds. So, even though Sos looked beautiful and deserved some time to explore, we pushed on knowing that we only had a few more km’s of climbing to do before a nice 13 km downhill run into Uncastillo, and we were still dry!

This all lasted for about 15 minutes and then the rain started. fortunately is was relatively light, and on the bright side, it kept us cool on the slightly steeper climb :)

Once we topped out at just over 900 m, the old road joined up with the larger CV 481 regional highway (that we shared with one van and one tractor) and we enjoyed a great 13 km downhill run with 3 - 4 % grade all the way to Uncastillo. Even better, the rain stopped just as we topped out and by the time we got to Uncastillo the sun was back out, and we were dry!

Uncastillo is a beautiful old town with interesting winding streets, but the highlight has to be the lodging that we are at. We are staying at La Pastora Posada, lodgings that are billed as simple inns. Team Anderson stayed at the same place on their 2017 ride and gave it glowing reviews. Although the ownership has changed since TA was here it is still an incredibly warm and inviting place to stay and we more than echo the TA review. If you are in this area, La pastora is highly recommended.

When we booked just a couple of days ago (when the rain forecast reared it’s head) they got back to us noting that on Tuesday their restaurant was normally not open on that day, however since we were arriving by bike, and since there was nothing else open in the village on Tuesday, they would provide dinner for us if we ordered ahead - and they sent us the menu.

Our stay here was so wonderful, the warm welcome, attentive personal service (it’s a small place to begin with and we were the only guests tonight) and the great meals (both dinner and breakfast) made this one of the most memorable days of the trip.

Thank you Dany and Lucia for such a warm welcome and wonderful night.

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SOTD - Fuel to the Fire by Agnes Obel. Dany had a wonderful soundtrack playing in the background with all variety and genres of music. When we were discussing our trip he asked if we had any day or days that stood out. Both K and I piped up in unison that our ride through the Bourne gorge and Comb Laval stood out, and as I was showing him the pictures of those days, he spotted the SOTD video by the Dandy Warhols for the Comb Laval day. This is one of his favoutite bands and he said they were going to be playing in Barcelona in a few weeks. The conversation diverted to music and as we were chatting, Agnes’s Catching, Falling instrumental started to play. She’s a pretty obscure artist (to most folks) but one of my fav’s … turns out she’s one of Dany’s favs too. This resulted in a number of her tunes playing through our wonderful dinner. This SOTD was one of them.

Leaving the wonderful Hotel Catedral Pamplona. Thanks for the upgrade!

The landscape has changed, but it is still beautiful. We’ve just left Pamplona heading south.

Riding alongside the autoroute and just about to join the NA 2420. This raod would have been fine to ride … decent pavement and no cars, but the NA 2420 was even better

This was the heavy traffic on the NA 2420. Two roadies past us as I was setting up for this pic. We can’t agree on whether there was one car or three the entire time we were on this,

Very beautiful countryside. That’s the auto route off to the left

Great downhill run on our private highway …. I can’t stress enough that there was NO vehicle traffic on this road.

Irrigation infrastructure, much drier than the Galician coast

And the clouds are gathering in the afternoon!

Approaching Sos, very stunning location and village

The view back to where we rode from. We’ve just passed though Sos trying to outrun the rain

One last look at Sos. Clear to the west, black to the east. The rain started about a minute latter!

Riding into Uncastillo. Stunning setting and the sun is coming back out

Quinoa, tomato, parsley and cucumber salad. We’ve been craving something like this, so fresh … and refreshing!

Ooops! This was a fantastic mushroom and prawn risotto. Trust us, it was great.

Today's ride: 86 km (53 miles)
Total: 1,771 km (1,100 miles)

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