Zumaia Geopark - an incredible place to explore

 Luckily for me I am not keen on big, bustling cities and I also have wonderful friends in Switzerland who recommend incredible places to me. When I mentioned Zumaia to Spanish friends, they hadn’t heard of it. Amazingly, because it will undoubtedly be one of the biggest highlights of this trip. It was a day with a Wow factor! And it was easily done by a slow but comfortable train from near my hostel, which wound around the area just inland from the coast. Pretty scenery but not giving me any clues as to what was to come. 

When you arrive at Zumaia, you still have no idea what lies ahead. Fortunately, the wind of a few days ago, which had caused them to cancel boat trips, had died down, and it was a calm, perfect day.

I took the little boat from just in front of the town. Only 25 on the boat plus a highly well versed, animated guide, whose commentary i could fortunately follow without a translator, making it much more enjoyable. 
Zumaia geopark is a Unesco site, as well it should be! It has 13 kilometres of the most remarkable rock formations, named Flysch, which date back 60 million years, thus giving an insight into the natural history of that time, dating back to the time of the dinosaurs.
It was a fantastic boat trip, and definitely the best way to view these giant cliffs. 
Going to the beach afterwards to view some of the areas more closely seemed to be so much more interesting after hearing the guide talking about how everything had been formed.
Despite seeing the Flysch from afar, nothing could have prepared me for this absolutely incredible sight close up. Wow, wow, and wow. Uff, uff, uff in Spanish ( I love this expression - thanks Sergio!). 
I walked for ages on this gorgeous beach, Playa de Itzuron, absolutely stunned by its incredible beauty and awesome cliffs and rock formations. It literally took my breath away. I just stopped and stared. It didn’t seem real because it was too magnificent.
Even these beautiful formations in the middle of the beach.
The surf was great too, so there were lots of pretty good surfers out there on the huge waves. You certainly wouldn’t want to land on those spikey rocks.
Caves 
Of incredible colours and beauty 
Rocks laid down in fascinating patterns 
Waves crashing into those rocks, gradually over hundreds of years changing them yet again!
Despite the heat, and the sweat pouring off me in the early afternoon sun, I made it up the hill to the pretty little church of San Telmo, dating back to 1540!
What a view!  I did feel quite proud of myself for getting there and looking down!
No energy left to explore the old city of Zumaia. This is the best I could do, and anyway it would have paled into insignificance compared to what I had just witnessed.

What a day! What a place! What everlasting memories!



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Tairua and the Coromandel

Image
What a lovely start to the day! Sunrise over Tairua .  Although the journey through to Coromandel was not too many kilometres, the extremely winding roads and passes made it a long, though magnificent journey. The forested mountains here are just marvelous and everything seemed so lush. Our first stop was in Coromandel at the Driving Creek Railway, set up originally by a potter wishing to transport his clay to his pottery. As he needed to pay his debts and people became interested in his tiny little railway, he opened it to the public, and it is certainly worth a visit. Not only is it a feat of engineering and construction, but the views and the forest are sensational.    They have planted thousands of Kauri trees and we learnt some interesting facts about them. When young, they have little leaves sticking out of their trunks, acting as protection but also there to ensure that there is more chance of photosynthesis.  Clever tree! No wonder they get so old....
Read more

Family and beautiful places in Hemel Hempstead and Llantwit Major

Image
  Time is such a strange concept when you are traveling. 10 hours on a train can seem an eternity, or, with good company or spectacular scenery, is over far too quickly. So it was with the Polyglot Gathering. One moment you are surrounded by like-minded people (842 from 59 countries, speaking 196 languages), you are in your element swapping from language to language, and then in a flash, you are in another wonderful yet totally different world of family and everyday life. The PG seems so long ago already, but thankfully the motivation it gave me to learn, remains! I have checked up about The Moravian Sparrow dish Sergio was eating, and am pleased to find out that it has nothing to do with sparrows! Moravian sparrow" (moravský vrabec in Czech) is  a classic dish from the Czech Republic, particularly Moravia, that is not made with actual sparrows .  It typically involves braising pork with onions, garlic, and spices, often served with dumplings and cabbage. Hemel Hemp...
Read more

Polyglot Gathering 2025 , Brno and new friends

Image
After days of worrying about connections via Munich to Brno, I opted to buy a brand new ticket directly from Zurich to Vienna, connecting to the original train from Munich. It meant a very early start, leaving Seengen at 5.30 to get all the connections. It was worth it for the lack of stress early in the day!  The 10-hour journey to Vienna was very scenic, passing through the Austrian Alps and reminding me of visits to David when he was working there as ski instructor.  The journey went a little quicker thanks to an incredible lady sitting opposite, who I discovered was actually 94, originally from Berlin and had been 15 when war ended. She had plenty to talk about, of course, and was as sharp as a tack! She was elegantly dressed and had bright red hair, with matching lipstick, perfectly applied! I was in awe of this remarkably self-assured lady who had endured the horrors of war. After a wait at Vienna I headed to Breclaw, my first introduction for a while to not being able t...
Read more