Waterfall, Basque Country
From It Happened. Make of It What You Will.
I was supposed to be sensible that day, I was still a bit shaky after being ill, and the plan was simple: get into SuperMazda, drive to Santander, no heroics.
I even did the responsible thing on Google Maps: easiest route, avoid complications, fine, I’ll take the boring road this time. Seat belt clicked, phone in the holder, key in the ignition.
And the moment the engine started, something in me switched back on.
The “adventure” bit.
I looked at the blue line on the screen and thought:
No. That’s not it.
There was a waterfall I’d wanted to see. Somewhere near Vitoria-Gasteiz. I’d skipped it on the way north. I wasn’t going to skip it twice.
So I stopped being sensible. I stopped the route, typed in new coordinates and let the blue line redraw itself through the mountains. Then I followed it.
The motorway spat me out into smaller and smaller roads. Villages, cattle, bends that made the coffee in the cup holder reconsider its life choices. At some point a tiny sign appeared, half-hidden by branches, pointing towards a natural park and a name I roughly recognised from my notes. I turned off.
The car park was empty. A map, a path, damp leaves under my shoes. Ten minutes of walking, a bit of uphill muttering – and then the world suddenly opened.
Cliff. Forest. Air.
And on the opposite side, a white column of water dropping straight down into a gorge, dissolving into mist before it hit the bottom. A second stream traced the rock face like a piece of silver thread. The wind blew spray across the valley; it smelled of stone and rain and moss.
Sometimes, they said on the board, the waterfall is almost dry. Not today.
Today it was fully loud and generous. Like it had been waiting for an audience.
I stood there in my rain jacket, not fully healthy yet, but grinning like an idiot. A few days earlier I’d been horizontal, counting every breath. Now I was watching a river walk off a cliff in the Basque Country because I’d refused to stick to the “easy” route.
This is one selected scene from the book.