Stunned by Zumaia

[Peregrinopaul]

I arrived at lunchtime and immediately went out to check on the local geology. I have to say that I found it mind-boggling.

That’s the local beach on the left. And behold! The flysch. This is the stuff that you walk over on the descent to Zubiri.




That’s the Ermita San Telmo perched on near-vertical sheets of limestone.



And again. I walked along the cliffs to the point at far right.


Looking back towards San Telmo. The stripes are the truncated limestone layers. The diagonal line is the edge of the cliff. I had crossed over the safety line in the interests of science!


This is looking towards the point.

 

[Dave]

Looking forward to your book, Paul!

 

[KiwiJohn]

I arrived at lunchtime and immediately went out to check on the local geology. I have to say that I found it mind-boggling.
View attachment 172496
That’s the local beach on the left. And behold! The flysch. This is the stuff that you walk over on the descent to Zubiri.

View attachment 172497

View attachment 172498
That’s the Ermita San Telmo perched on near-vertical sheets of limestone.


View attachment 172500
And again. I walked along the cliffs to the point at far right.

View attachment 172504
Looking back towards San Telmo. The stripes are the truncated limestone layers. The diagonal line is the edge of the cliff. I had crossed over the safety line in the interests of science!

View attachment 172508
This is looking towards the point.

Thank you, Paul. That will be me in late August '25.
Buen Camino

 

[Peregrinopaul]

Thank you, Paul. That will be me in late August '25.
Buen Camino

In that case I strongly urge you to arrive Zumaia early in the day allowing time for the walk along the cliff top which the Camino obviously misses.

 

[Peregrinopaul]

I missed out the pièce de résistance in my OP. In the cove on the other side of the point shown in the Ermita picture above, you can see the K/T boundary- that’s the actual horizon marking the moment when the asteroid fell in the Yucatan Peninsula, wiping out the dinosaur dynasty along with about 80% of all species on the planet 66 million years ago.


It’s situated precisely under the shelving limestone layer, above the reddish-tinged formation. Not many places in the world where you can see this.

 

[Tincatinker]

Thank you for this!

 

[peregrina2000]

I strongly urge you to arrive Zumaia early in the day allowing time for the walk along the cliff top which the Camino obviously misses.

It’s easy to incorporate the Ruta del Flysch into your camino stage into Deba. Lots of discussion here.

 

[VNwalking]

K/T boundary

That was my question when I saw your thread title. You DID see it!
Oooooooooooo.

 

[Peregrinopaul]

That was my question when I saw your thread title. You DID see it!
Oooooooooooo.

My only disappointment was that I couldn’t get down there and touch it because I missed the low tide.
There’s an interesting history to this. I’ve wanted to see it since it’s significance was first posited by father and son Luis and Walter Alvarez in 1980.


Luis was a nuclear physicist, who had worked at Los Alamos during the war. His son was a geologist. When they came up with the asteroid theory the geological establishment ridiculed it. …Until the crater at Chicxulub in Yucatan was identified as the culprit in 1990.
The photo shows the discovers at an exposure near Gubbio in Italy. But it is exactly the same horizon as here at Zumaia.

 

[Kirkie]

I know very little! Careful! My friend tells me Zumaia has three Golden Nails for the geological treasures it holds.
Paul, you will open treasure chests with your research. I told you in a pm that the Navarra people will not desecrate the descent to Zubiri. My contact is fairly high up in rank, and I believe him.

 

[Peregrinopaul]

I know very little! Careful! My friend tells me Zumaia has three Golden Nails for the geological treasures it holds.

I think I found the third nail this morning. This is Sakoneta ‘beach’ which is a few km along the coast.

 

[VNwalking]

That is sooooo gorgeous. Thanks, Paul.

My only disappointment was that I couldn’t get down there and touch it because I missed the low tide.

You'll just have to go back. A good excuse!

My friend tells me Zumaia has three Golden Nails for the geological treasures it holds.

I told you in a pm that the Navarra people will not desecrate the descent to Zubiri. My contact is fairly high up in rank, and I believe him.

I'm so pleased it is common knowledge locally. I wonder what we can do as pilgrims to encourage a signboard so that outsiders walking down there (all of us, IOW) know why it's so special. And why it's not paved.

 

[jefferyonthecamino]

I arrived at lunchtime and immediately went out to check on the local geology. I have to say that I found it mind-boggling.
View attachment 172496
That’s the local beach on the left. And behold! The flysch. This is the stuff that you walk over on the descent to Zubiri.

View attachment 172497

View attachment 172498
That’s the Ermita San Telmo perched on near-vertical sheets of limestone.


View attachment 172500
And again. I walked along the cliffs to the point at far right.

View attachment 172504
Looking back towards San Telmo. The stripes are the truncated limestone layers. The diagonal line is the edge of the cliff. I had crossed over the safety line in the interests of science!

View attachment 172508
This is looking towards the point.

it's a beautiful place. indeed, the whole coast from hondarribia to deba is beautiful

 

[Varekai]

Ooh it's Dragonstone!

 

[Camino Chrissy]

Paul, I have enjoyed your research and all of the many photos you have posted on the flysches. I know this isn't a photo along the coast of the Norte nor the descent down to Zubiri, but I took this one lone photo on the way down to Molinaseca from El Acebo and thought it fascinating with its many ridges all lined up.

 

[Kirkie]

That is sooooo gorgeous. Thanks, Paul.


You'll just have to go back. A good excuse!



I'm so pleased it is common knowledge locally. I wonder what we can do as pilgrims to encourage a signboard so that outsiders walking down there (all of us, IOW) know why it's so special. And why it's not paved.

Perhaps, write to the Oficina de Turismo in Pamplona, asking for a signpost? My contact is very aware of the geological value of the terrain, but also of the logistics of dealing with the solution to the problem of over-footing, and there is also the element of ownership of the land... it is in private hands, as I understand the situation.
Nothing is as simple as it seems it might be. I can only repeat that I am assured that concrete will not be the solution.
Now, I think I have said what I can on the situation, and we can count on the excellent sense of savoire faire of the Navarra people with influence!

 

[lt56ny]

Beautiful photos of a beautiful Camino I remember so fondly.

 

[Peregrinopaul]

Perhaps, write to the Oficina de Turismo in Pamplona, asking for a signpost? My contact is very aware of the geological value of the terrain, but also of the logistics of dealing with the solution to the problem of over-footing, and there is also the element of ownership of the land... it is in private hands, as I understand the situation.
Nothing is as simple as it seems it might be. I can only repeat that I am assured that concrete will not be the solution.
Now, I think I have said what I can on the situation, and we can count on the excellent sense of savoire faire of the Navarra people with influence!

I’m going to get onto this when I get back. It’s likely that the Geoparkea might take it up. After all it’s the same stuff at Zubiri and they might see it as valuable publicity. They have really informative boards all over the place here.

 

[Peregrinopaul]

Paul, I have enjoyed your research and all of the many photos you have posted on the flysches. I know this isn't a photo along the coast of the Norte nor the descent down to Zubiri, but I took this one lone photo on the way down to Molinaseca from El Acebo and thought it fascinating with its many ridges all lined up.
View attachment 172540

Chrissy, you’re not wrong making the comparison. It’s the same structural situation geologically. But the rocks are hundreds of millions of years older, and don’t alternate in hard/soft couplets like here. They’re all hard!

 

[Camino Chrissy]

Chrissy, you’re not wrong making the comparison. It’s the same structural situation geologically. But the rocks are hundreds of millions of years older, and don’t alternate in hard/soft couplets like here. They’re all hard!

So are Zubiri's flysches all "hard as rocks"? I don't remember although I've walked it twice.

 

[mattythedog]

I know very little! Careful! My friend tells me Zumaia has three Golden Nails for the geological treasures it holds.
Paul, you will open treasure chests with your research. I told you in a pm that the Navarra people will not desecrate the descent to Zubiri. My contact is fairly high up in rank, and I believe him.

Excellent to hear. Don't mess with the path to Zubiri!!

 

[Peregrinopaul]

Since there are quite a few of you who appreciated my waxing lyrical about Zumaia, I’d like to show you something else that impressed me today.
Between Urbiola (or Luquin for me) and Los Arcos, the camino approaches and eventually runs alongside this ridge - you actually cross through a gap just before entering the town.
Looks fairly ordinary.

Well it isn’t. There is an autovia cutting intersecting it, not far off the camino track, at the eastern end just out of sight in the picture, behind the vineyard in the foreground.

Today I managed to find a way to get up-close and personal with the exposure in the cutting. (I’d actually tried to get to it it last year, but on that occasion I had to scramble through muddy bush to the wrong side of the autovia - very frustrating).
Today, it didn’t disappoint. (Here’s one for you @VNwalking.) This is a look at the ‘inside’ of the ridge.


They are beds of gypsum and alabaster, evaporated out of a huge lake that once occupied this region about 20 million years ago. They were of course accumulated horizontally on the bed of the lake. In the tectonic turmoil that has happened subsequently they’ve ended up vertical.

 

[Rebekah Scott]

Zumaia has a long Camino history, too. You can read a local boy's take in "The Great Westward Walk," the book begins in Zumaia, the author's home town.

 

[VNwalking]

Beautiful. Wow, indeed.

They are beds of gypsum and alabaster

Ahhhh. That's the kind of deposit where the alabaster windows in churches (like Grañon) come from.

Buen camino, Paul - may there be more posts like this!!

 

[Peregrinopaul]

Ahhhh. That's the kind of deposit where the alabaster windows in churches (like Grañon) come from.

I wasn’t aware, but you are surely right. Just checked Wikipedia which says alabaster windows are common in medieval churches throughout northern Spain.
Blocks from some of these horizons would be easy to cut into thin sheets.

 

[Mendizale]

This weekend a woman was rescued by police after the high tide blocked her in the rocks...
If you really want to do a walk in the Flysch you should be careful with the tides, think about doing it when the low tide is arriving at his maximum, can be a dangerous experience if you don't pay attention.
I'd do it from Zumaia, walking in the Flysch is not easy and will take you time. When arriving at Aitzuriko Punta where Mirador Mendatagaina is, is better to walk up and follow the Camino de Santiago trail until Deba.
https://www.noticiasdegipuzkoa.eus/...ata-mujer-atrapada-flysch-zumaia-8392572.html

 

[peregrina2000]

This weekend a woman was rescued by police after the high tide blocked her in the rocks...
If you really want to do a walk in the Flysch you should be careful with the tides, think about doing it when the low tide is arriving at his maximum, can be a dangerous experience if you don't pay attention.
I'd do it from Zumaia, walking in the Flysch is not easy and will take you time. When arriving at Aitzuriko Punta where Mirador Mendatagaina is, is better to walk up and follow the Camino de Santiago trail until Deba.
https://www.noticiasdegipuzkoa.eus/...ata-mujer-atrapada-flysch-zumaia-8392572.html

WOW, that is sobering.

Fortunately, the well-marked trail does not take you down onto the rocks. It is perfectly safe and beautiful. I’ll leave the rock exploration to people like @Peregrinopaul