Mendexa (Mendeja)

The road climbs sharply after Lekeitio's harbour. One moment you're eye-level with fishing boats, the next you're looking down on their masts. Five kilometres inland, Mendexa appears not as a clustered village but as a scatter of stone farmhouses across folds of emerald. The sea hasn't disappeared—it's simply stepped back, revealing itself in framed glimpses between pastures and oak trunks.

This is countryside with an ocean secret. At 180 metres above sea level, Mendexa sits high enough to catch Atlantic weather systems before they break. Locals claim you can smell rain on the sea before clouds form. Whether meteorological fact or rural folklore, the assertion captures the village's peculiar geography: close enough to the coast for salt on the wind, elevated enough for dairy cattle rather than beach bars.

The View That Isn't on the Postcards

Most visitors arrive chasing a specific vista they've spotted on Airbnb—sunrise over Lekeitio's beach, photographed from a hillside balcony. The reality proves more interesting. Because Mendexa lacks a single designated viewpoint, discovering the coast becomes a DIY exercise. Walk 200 metres up Errekalde road and the Cantabrian might flash through a gateway. Continue towards Abentura adventure park and suddenly the entire estuary opens, tidal sandbanks glinting like polished steel.

These partial revelations beat any panoramic platform. The Basque coastline isn't dramatic in the Dorset cliffs sense; it's intricate, a sequence of river mouths, rocky coves and small working ports. Seeing it emerge piecemeal—first a lighthouse, then a breakwater, finally the whole sweep of bay—forces you to work visually, to assemble the scene like a jigsaw. Children grasp this instinctively. Adults sometimes need reminding that half the fun lies in the search.

When the Hills Get the Better of You

Mendexa rewards walkers, but honesty demands a caveat: those "gentle rural paths" tilt more steeply than UK OS maps suggest. A typical 3-kilometre loop from the church of San Pedro to the Barne neighbourhood involves 120 metres of ascent, sections of concrete so smooth cattle use it as a slip road. Trainers suffice in dry weather; after rain, the clay sections turn vindictively slick. Allow twice the time Google Maps indicates, and carry a light waterproof even in July—the Atlantic has a habit of lobbing showers over the ridge without warning.

The effort purchases solitude. Apart from weekend mornings, when Lekeitio visitors attempt the ridge walk, you're likely to share lanes only with scruffy ponies and the occasional farmer on a quad bike. They'll wave; you'll wonder whether to reciprocate or maintain British reserve. Wave. The gesture costs nothing and may earn directions to a barn selling cheese at €6 a wedge.

Lunch Decisions: Cider or Sandwich?

Food options within Mendexa itself are limited to Bar Kastro on the small plaza. The menu won't frighten timid Anglo palates—omelette baguette, grilled chicken, crisps in flavours you've heard of. For anything more ambitious, drive three minutes towards Lekeitio and pull into Asador Arriaga, a sidrería where cider is poured from height into tumblers the size of plant pots. Staff will happily translate chuletón as "T-bone for two, about a kilo". Splitting portions is acceptable; wasting meat is not.

Vegetarians face slimmer pickings. Most grills brush everything with animal fat, and even the ubiquitous pimientos de Padrón arrive slick. Solution: order tortilla española and pad it out with bread. Alternatively, self-cater. The village SPAR stocks UHT milk, tinned beans and surprisingly decent Rioja at £7 a bottle—stock up before you leave Lekeitio's larger supermarkets because choice shrinks with altitude.

Rainy-Day Insurance for Families

Should the Atlantic win its battle with the sky, Abentura Park provides canopy-level entertainment. Think Go Ape with Basque accents: zip-wires, Nepalese bridges, a final 200-metre ride that lands you in a pine clearing. British parents on TripAdvisor praise Arkaitz, the English-speaking monitor, for coaxing nervous eight-year-olds across balance beams. Booking online saves disappointment; Spanish school parties claim entire mornings. Waterproof jackets are advised even in sunshine—resinous bark stains clothes indelibly, and you will hug trees whether you mean to or not.

Adults without children might prefer the indoor fronton. Pelota matches take place most weekends; locals will explain scoring if you ask politely. Buy crisps and a caña from the bar opposite, lean on the barrier and pretend you understand why the ball is bounced off the roof. Enthusiasm trumps expertise here.

Getting Here Without Losing Your Sanity

Bilbao airport, ninety minutes away, receives EasyJet and Vueling flights from London. Hire cars cluster in the multi-storey opposite arrivals; ignore the hard sell for diesel, a 1.0-litre petrol handles these hills fine. Take the A8 coastal motorway to Amorebieta, then the BI-638 towards Lekeitio. Mendexa is sign-posted right five kilometres before the sea. The final approach narrows to single-track with stone walls—drive slowly, pull in at farm gateways to let oncoming tractors pass. Sat-nav occasionally directs you down unsurfaced lanes suitable only for cows. Ignore it.

Public transport exists but requires monastic patience. A Bizkaibus runs hourly from Bilbao to Lekeitio; from there, a taxi uphill costs €12 if you can persuade the driver to leave the lucrative harbour rank. Many won't. Cycling is feasible for the semi-fit, though the 12% gradient after the last roundabout has reduced grown men to tears. Electric bikes work wonders; ordinary hybrids may necessitate a dignity-saving dismount.

Where to Wake Up

Accommodation divides into two categories: hillside apartments with sea glimpses, and converted farmhouses where silence is absolute. The standout Airbnb commands a ridge 1.5 kilometres above Lekeitio—two bedrooms, glass balcony, sunrise that turns the estuary copper. At £140 a night shoulder season it undercuts equivalent Dorset coastal lets by half. Casa Rural Atxurra offers the full stone-house fantasy: beams, fireplace, pool shared with one other unit. Book directly via their website; Booking.com adds 12%. If you need hotel services—reception, daily clean—drive down to Hotel Zubieta in Lekeitio. Mendexa itself provides no such frills, and that is rather the point.

The Catch Nobody Mentions

Mendexa will not fill an itinerary. Two hours of wandering, twenty minutes for coffee, another forty if you tackle a forest path—then what? Smart visitors treat the village as a comma between coastal sentences. Spend the morning on Lekeitio's beach, lunch on grilled sea bass, escape inland as day-trippers queue for ice-cream. The temperature drops three degrees with the altitude, the light softens, and you watch fishing boats head out from a vantage they never imagined. Stay for sunset if skies are clear; otherwise pack up before fog erases both sea and road.

Come prepared and the place makes sense: walking boots in the boot, light jacket in the rucksack, picnic assembled while you still had supermarket choice. Treat those precautions as insurance rather than prophecy—some days the Atlantic behaves, the horizon sharpens to a blade, and you understand why locals never bothered moving closer to the shore. The sea is beautiful, but sometimes a buffer of fields and cows improves the view.