Ireland day 1132. Sunday 03 November 2024- San Sebastian 1

Today’s summary	A relatively short day’s walking, to and from the Parador. Out-and-back to the nearby Playa de la Guancha. A good walk with superb views again, and a wonderfully secluded bay for our picnic lunch. A bit overshadowed by the nearby municipal rubbish dump(!) and the sea too rough and stony for swimming. But we really enjoyed the leg stretch nevertheless. Dinner in the Parador once again tonight. All very relaxing
Today’s weather	Bright dry and sunny most of the day though some high cloud in the afternoon. Light south westerly wind. Appx 22c

Today’s overview location (The green mark shows the location of our route)		Close-up location (The orange line shows where we walked) (Click button below to download GPX of today’s walk as recorded, or see interactive map at bottom with elevations corrected): Playa de la Guancha

Commentary

San Sebastian is a curious mix of a town. Quaint and pretty, with interesting narrow streets and colourful gardens in parts, but scruffy with litter, dirt and fumes in others. Anyway, the Parador is in one of the nicer parts, and we are thoroughly enjoying it (although it has to be said they do seem to have a bit of a problems with the drains from time to time!).

We enjoyed a very relaxing start to the day, with breakfast at 8:30 but taking so long over it that we weren’t out and on our way until after 11. And even then, we only made it as far as the supermarket across the road, where we stopped to pick up some lunch. Eventually, though, we were properly underway, heading west along the coast to explore the hidden cove at Playa de la Guanche. The route did start, inevitably it seems for this mountainous island, with a steep descent into town which of course had to be repeated – in reverse (i.e. uphill) at the end of the day.

The route out onto the coast proper took us behind the diesel-fired power station, which was quite interesting if you were an engineer, but otherwise just a bit of a fumy blot on the landscape. Anyway, we were soon out into the open country, high above the sea, looking back to Tenerife and El Teide and down to the ferry terminal where Messrs Armas and Olsen took it in turns to shuttle in and out to Tenerife.

Eventually, after a few ups and downs, we reached at a lofty perch overlooking the Playa. It’s a bit spoiled by the litter blown into the bay from the nearby rubbish dump, but once you are upwind of the municipal site, the beach itself is pretty clean. Lining the back of the beach are a series of tumbledown shanty huts that used to belong to the hippies who inhabited these parts. But they look mostly uninhabited now, as hippiedom fell out of fashion and various scandals engulfed the messianic types who championed these alternative lifestyles.

We headed to the far end of the beach, hoping to find a calmer spot in the surf where we could go swimming, but even there, the sea appeared too rough, and the beach too stony, to tempt any of us in. Anyway we spent a good hour there, relaxing, admiring the view, and enjoying our packed lunches. Eventually, though, another group of walkers appeared on the horizon so we, unwilling to share our solitude with anyone else, galvanised ourselves into action and set off back in the direction of San Sebastian.

The return walk was as interesting as the outward, with ferries to watch and views to be admired. We were soon back in San Sebastian and with a bit of deft navigation, made our collective way up a series of steep steps through the town and back up onto the Parador headland. Once back there was just time for a quick shower to wash off the day’s toil, then a dip in the pool (2 lengths for me – ten times as many for Val, who is clearly made of tougher stuff) and a few pre-prandial snacks in our room before returning to the dining room for cena.

Anyway, I must stop now, as I need once again to go and make myself look presentable!

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


San Sebastian showing its best face from just outside the Parador	The slightly less endearing side, from behind the Endesa diesel fired power station

Lofty eyrie looking down on Playa de la Guancha. More-or-less completely deserted when we got there	Mermaid contemplating the sea. Sadly too rough for even the hardiest seafarers among us jump in

The desolate barranco behind us, which the GR132 explores, eventually ending up at the “Exclusive resort” of La Cabrita – also formerly a hippie community. By the way did you know that the people who live in Hippy Communities are called “Communards”? I didn’t	Negotiating our way through the busy and labyrinthine back-streets of San Sebastian on our return

Setting off from the Parador this morning. Lots of happy faces after a week of sunshine!