By Adrian, and a little Fi.

While the boat work was completing we surveyed the map and realized there was a long distance with few ports to the south of us before we crossed the Spanish border. We needed to absorb some more Frenchness before Spain so chose to go up the river to Rochefort, a few miles south of La Rochelle.

The river was lined with little mens sheds on stilts over the river
They must be fit around here: there was a trampoline outside each shed
There were a few small runabouts and sailing boats in the river, but we were surprised when this came around the corner. There are some quite narrow sections and only enough depth to navigate the river at high tide.
We went under the bridge with a suspended platform attached to a small train. The platform can just be seen parked on the left hand side.
We returned to the bridge by paw and foot the next day
And took a ride on the suspended platform across the river
When we left Rochefort, we found the platform mid stream!

After a trip to the Rochefort markets we decided to have picnic beside the river.

Picnic with a spaniel…sooo relaxing
Rochefort was a large navy boat yard in a bygone era and the restored buildings and parks along the river make an attractive picnic spot.
There was a mussel shack right next to Rocheport harbour where we absorbed some Frenchness
Simple fresh food, well cooked and slurped down with a local vintage

After a few days relaxing in Rochefort we headed out into Biscay and turned south. Thirty six hours later we found ourselves in Saint Jean-de-Luz, one of the last French towns before the border. The town was a delightful fusion of Basque and French.

Dolphins accompanied us on the trip. We even saw some darting about in the bioluminescence at night.
We parked off the beach. We called the marina to see if we could go in, but he said they didn’t have enough space. Google Translate is really helping us in these less international touristy areas. We visited the marina, and yeah, even if they had a berth, we wouldn’t have fit. But its lovely being on anchor.
We tried to blend in with the tourists

Next stop was San Sebastian in Basque country. With a mountainous backdrop and statue on a hill next to the town it looked quite different to the French side of the border.

We managed to snuggle into the little harbour right next to the old town. Going in it was a quick judgement call if we would fit past the large tourist boat without scratching them, or ourselves on the large rock wall. It was tight.
The local ferries had just enough room to squeeze past us if we held our breath
The old town before the tourists arrived
We tried our first Spanish dishes on a fabulous foodie tour where we learned all about Basque food and local wine and cider. Coming home with a proper tool to pour the local wine and cider too!

We met some lovely new friends on our foodie tour celebrating a big birthday (Happy Birthday again F!) and had them over for some drinks on Away to discuss all things travel and fun.

Visited the statue who was having a clean
And enjoyed the views across the bay, and went running around the beach. There are so many eucalypt trees here it smells like home.
We spotted a church in the old town
And went inside for a peek
An evening was spent on a walking tour of the bars in the old town.

After way to many pintxos (small dishes like tapas), we decided to navigate the tight exit from the marina, and head back out to open waters towards Bilbao. When we arrived, the beaches were absolutely packed! Once tucked in to the marina, we enjoyed a bite to eat. The following day we took the metro into the town centre for a look around at the markets and the old town, after giving the dog a walk. We’ve discovered whilst there are a lot of dogs in Spain, the transport and shops are not as dog friendly as Cornwall.

We headed along the rugged coast line to Bilbao
The famous spider was patrolling outside the Guggenheim museum
And took the inevitable selfie with the flowery puppy.

Our next hop was to the port of Laredo where there was a large modern marina.

We saw a quite a few walkers heading west along the beach. One of them seemed to be carry beads in her hand, and we realized we must be on one of the many Camino tails heading to Santiago. The Caminos were easy to spot with their mid sized back packs, clam shells and walking sticks. We have seen lots of them at the ports along the north Spanish coast.

A sign the Camino’s passed by this way
Our new (super fast comfy) dinghy took us across the bay to Santona, where we found this we found this unusual circular building.
Looks like the men play dress ups in this building
There is a circular headland walk from Santona that was described as fairly level unless you choose to go down the steps to the light house. We agreed after seeing the lighthouse as we headed along the coast.
Bernie is getting a bit old for stairs these days, so we had to make do with a restaurant with a view instead.
The Spanish sunsets were worth capturing

Some light afternoon wind allowed us to get the big red sail out and head around to Santander, where we parked off a white sandy beach amid the Sunday afternoon water sports.

The next day a beautiful red boat appeared with an Aussie flag and a friendly g’day. The aussie couple had been living on their boat for many years sailing the med. It was an absolute delight to hear that familiar accent saying G’Day at the stern. We enjoyed coffee and food and great chats about cruising.

We now find ourselves out of Basque country and so the Basque flag is stowed, and the Spanish flag raised. We get to Ribadesella after a quick sail of 25m along the coast. We needed to time the tide right again as Ribadesella is a little bit of a tricky town to moor in.

More on Ribadesella next time. And yeah, I (Fi) apparently have no idea of how that’s pronounced correctly given the poor marina staff had no idea who I was calling on the radio as we entered.