Stage 8 and the final day of this trip was meant to be the shortest stage of the Pyrenees so far. The fly in the ointment was that there was nowhere to stay at the final destination, Zuriza, so forcing us to walk back to where we started before the end of the day. Another challenge to contend with was the weather forecast of heavy rain and thunderstorms from around 2 pm. There was an alternative route that we could have taken instead today which would have meant farm or climbing and far longer distance to reach the same destination but because of these two issues we just didn’t have the time. This second route would have taken us over Peña Eskaurri, the whale back Ridge which we had seen yesterday. Having seen the GR11 board it looked like we would have had to scramble up a sheer rock face so perhaps the worsening weather did us a favour.

The early gentle climbs along a solid path and allow us some leafy views of Isaba and the Barranca de Belabarze river behind us.

The path came to a clearing between 2 hills/mountains – Alto de Belaisaise on our left and Alto de Belabarze on the right. We followed the river along the river bank for a while but found the grass quite soggy underfoot. We I nstead decided to walk along the road which was alongside the river. This was fine for a couple of kilometres until our progress was impinged by cattle loose on the road. What stopped us in our tracks was a bull and a cow inflagrante in the middle of the road and didn’t look like they wanted the distraction of people walking past them. We decided to take evasive action jump jumping over the river and rejoined the official path just as it started its climb into the woods again.

Through the woods the path flattened off, reaching the Coll d’Arguibiela where it crossed the road we had walked along earlier. The signage shown advises that we were now leaving Navarra and entering Aragon.

Zuriza was only populated by cows when we reached it, probably as a consequence of the campsite being permanently closed. There is a petition underway to force the council to reopen it, but nothings happening on that front just yet.

in the distance you can make out the path through the valley which marks the beginning of stage 9 and the beginning of ‘proper’ mountains as the guidebook describes them.