Children’s route 2
Route published by Pedro Pablo Uriarte “15 circular routes from Gorliz for families with children”
View map of the route on Wikiloc
FILE OF THE ROUTE:
Duration: 2 hours 2 min
Distance: 9,45 km
Cumulative elevation gain: 228m
Difficulty: Easy
This is a route that does not climb any of the peaks in the area. It is just over 9 km long and has a low positive difference in altitude (228 m), which runs along a road in several sections, although it is not very frequented by vehicles.
We start the route at Ibarreta Plaza and approach the small square of San Pedro to get to Itasbide, and along Eloisa Artaza go down to Ondargane Bidea, which we cross to take the walk down to the beach, passing next to the children’s playground.
Once on the beach promenade, turn right towards Astondo, passing the former Gorliz Maritime Sanatorium, now Gorliz Hospital. Once at the aid station, turn right towards Urezarantza, and then almost immediately turn left onto the road to the lighthouse.
We walk along the aforementioned road to the lighthouse and pass the wooden hut at the entrance to the Granja Foral, where years ago there were information panels about the different species that grazed in the large fields. On the ground there is still a sculpture by Ibon Garagarza, the only one that remains of all the sculptures he installed along this coast many years ago, which were generically known as “Ibilbide”.
Just behind the hut we find a roe deer grazing and allowing itself to be photographed by the people passing by. A little further up, we see on our right a beautiful field full of the typical mauve-coloured flowers of the wild chicory (Chicorium Intybus) (see below for its properties and uses). We continue upwards until we reach a wide gate on our right that has a vertical side path. We go through it. We are inside the pastures of the foral farm and pass a herd of black horses. A little further down there are a number of cattle grazing. The views of the bay of Gorliz are exceptional.
Leaving the animals alone, we continue on our wide path and soon reach another gate or metal fence that closes it and which also has another side passage, which we pass through.
The path continues completely flat and without any deviation until we come across the cemented track (Txoznako Estrata) that comes from Urezarantza and arrives at Fanobidea a while later, under the dark canopy of the branches of the holm oaks. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves, the wide path has three diversions that people should be aware of, two to the left and one to the right. The first path to the left goes up to Lehorharri, the second goes to the neighbourhood of Fano and the third, to the right, goes down to Txoznako Estrata, but further down.
We land on the cemented track and turn left. We are soon in Fanobidea, at the crossroads between the track we are on, the road to Fanobidea and, to the right, almost hidden, the beginning of the “Camino Viejo” (Old Road) that goes down to Entrepinos. From here there is also a wonderful panoramic view of the bay of Gorliz.
We continue along the road towards Orabille. Walking along the road without traffic is great, and almost without realising it, and after stopping again to admire the view of our bay from a distance, we soon reach the junction with the Armintza-Gorliz road in Orabille. Here, be careful not to let the children loose, as cars will appear on our left without us noticing. We cross quickly to continue straight ahead, along a small road that climbs steeply towards Berreaga, a district of Lemoiz.
We soon reach this crossroads, the Berreaga crossroads, where we turn left towards Urizar, but we continue ahead, passing the beautiful Larrakoetxea farmhouse and restaurant. This country house has large gardens, whose wire fence is on our right for a while. The variety of trees here is impressive. We can see conifers, oaks, holm oaks, walnut trees, hazelnut trees, ash trees, magnolias, etc. as we pass by. The pity is that it is not possible to visit it.
We continue along the road ahead until we reach a eucalyptus grove on our right a few hundred metres before reaching the entrance to the Goiko Mendi Equestrian Club. Halfway through the eucalyptus grove we see two vertical stakes with white markings flanking the entrance to a path. We take this path, descending along a marked path that is sometimes covered by the bark and lanceolate leaves of the eucalyptus trees, which are a great danger as they are easy fuel in fires.
We soon reach a crossroads and continue straight ahead and down a wide path with a farmhouse on the left at the start. We reach the lower part next to a beautiful chalet, where the path makes a couple of bends and is now cemented, descending next to a well-kept vineyard. A little further down there is a crossroads and we turn left and then right, and then without any detour we reach the Saratxaga road that leads down from the cider house of the same name, which is now closed.
We go a few metres to the left, and there we turn right onto another small road that will take us past a beautiful farmhouse to the roundabout at the entrance to Gorliz town. This is the road called Errementari bidea. We are almost next to Iberreta square, which we cross from top to bottom. This is the end of today’s route, which is almost nine and a half kilometres long and has a very modest positive difference in altitude of 228 m.
