Cracking walk, Gromit! We've just completed our third and final mountain climb! Shall we celebrate with a nice piece of Wensleydale? Indeed, today was our final mountain climb, which occurred between Cabredo and Lapoblación. It was pretty steep, and also rocky, and, annoyingly, it got steeper and rockier towards the top. Once finally at the top, however, the trail became pretty much gravel/rock for the whole day, apart from the asphalt bits when walking through towns and villages. We've been in a slight no-mans-land for the past two days, with either no facilities, or the one or two we have found being closed (when they're supposed to be open!). Anticipating this, we bought two days worth of food and water back in Campezo, before we left. The downside to this of course is that you have to carry it all and it does have an adverse effect on the feet, especially when climbing a mountain! The highlight of today's walk by far was when we walked past a cornfield and spooked a massive eagle that we didn't even know was there until it took flight. We reckoned it must have had around a 2 to 2.5m wingspan! Kripan is a lovely little town. It's very small and doesn't have a shop, but where we're staying, the Casa Rural Mercedes Etxea provides everything you might want for your stay, bread and toasters, jams, coffee and coffee machines, milk, about a million flavours of herbal tea, a small selection of fruit, and things for cooking, like olive oil, etc. There's also a fully equipped kitchen, should you want to make your own meals. We chose to go to the only bar in town, which was actually open, and had a huge sandwich, some patatas bravas, and some beers, all while the super-friendly owner watched Netflix and got progressively more drunk and smiley as time passed. As great as the evening was, there is a bit of anxiety, as tomorrow is our longest walk of 25km, which we've ascertained from previous caminos to be our limit with backpacks, though fortunately it's virtually flat the whole way. we'll do our usual and split the walk into manageable blocks with plenty of rest stops.

Hiking/Backpacking

Montaña Alavesa/Arabako Mendiald, Autonomous Community of the Basque , Spain

time : Sep 15, 2025 9:31 AM

duration : 7h 57m 37s

distance : 22 km

total_ascent : 788 m

highest_point : 1022 m

avg_speed : 3.9 km/h

user_id : fineartjones

user_firstname : Neil

user_lastname : Jones

Cracking walk, Gromit! We've just completed our third and final mountain climb! Shall we celebrate with a nice piece of Wensleydale? Indeed, today was our final mountain climb, which occurred between Cabredo and Lapoblación. It was pretty steep, and also rocky, and, annoyingly, it got steeper and rockier towards the top. Once finally at the top, however, the trail became pretty much gravel/rock for the whole day, apart from the asphalt bits when walking through towns and villages. We've been in a slight no-mans-land for the past two days, with either no facilities, or the one or two we have found being closed (when they're supposed to be open!). Anticipating this, we bought two days worth of food and water back in Campezo, before we left. The downside to this of course is that you have to carry it all and it does have an adverse effect on the feet, especially when climbing a mountain! The highlight of today's walk by far was when we walked past a cornfield and spooked a massive eagle that we didn't even know was there until it took flight. We reckoned it must have had around a 2 to 2.5m wingspan! Kripan is a lovely little town. It's very small and doesn't have a shop, but where we're staying, the Casa Rural Mercedes Etxea provides everything you might want for your stay, bread and toasters, jams, coffee and coffee machines, milk, about a million flavours of herbal tea, a small selection of fruit, and things for cooking, like olive oil, etc. There's also a fully equipped kitchen, should you want to make your own meals. We chose to go to the only bar in town, which was actually open, and had a huge sandwich, some patatas bravas, and some beers, all while the super-friendly owner watched Netflix and got progressively more drunk and smiley as time passed. As great as the evening was, there is a bit of anxiety, as tomorrow is our longest walk of 25km, which we've ascertained from previous caminos to be our limit with backpacks, though fortunately it's virtually flat the whole way. we'll do our usual and split the walk into manageable blocks with plenty of rest stops.