Tuesday 06 June Piscinas

Still some cloud around, but the forecast is for clear skies later on. I make the mistake of asking just for "caffe" at breakfast and tiny thimble-fulls of oily bitter blackness duly arrive. Breakfast is set out on a huge petrified tree trunk with a glass table top. We head for the beach, wreaths of cloud swirling around Mount Arcuentu (795 metres) which dominates the landscape like a giant volcanic plug along with the jagged teeth of the adjacent mountain range. We walk up the hot sandy dune ( the highest in Europe, claims the hotel blurb...though the dune at Arcachon seemed larger) and then enter the pounding white frothy surf. A day without bicycles slips effortlessly by. We are in a very remote and inaccessible spot, and getting out of it tomorrow with the bikes, along sandy unmade roads to the deserted mining village where there is a proper road, will be a challenge!