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    Adarramendi (Urnieta)
 
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    Gipuzkoa is very mountainous and its countryside is spotted with caserios (farms) and the farmers are logically, mountain people. Climbing mountains in that area was not considered to be a pleasurable pastime. However the Adarragas soon changed that stigma and popularized mountaineering in the surroundings of Hernani.

       In my fathers words, mountain climbing was a great family outing and a good way to strengthen the family bond.

     The Adarragas loved climbing the Adarra (located in Urnieta, next town to Hernani) on Sundays. First they would need to plan with great detail the excursion, then execute the climb. We would start quite early as the climb, starting  from Hernani, took several hours, depending on the weather. they would reach the summit and then climb down to Iturrigoxo for lunch. After this effort, we would reward ourselves with  a rich lunch, cooked with the small petrol pressure "Primus". After, they would have a little nap (the elders)  and return home  tired and hungry, before dark. This truly was a great day for them.. This truly was a great day for them.

   Agustin (Austin in Euskera and in Australian) who has climb it many times, dedicated the following paragraph (translated from Spanish) of his autobiography to his aitona (grandfather) and the Adarra:

   To climb the Adarra is a family tradition, initiated by aitona (grandfather) a pioneer of this and other sports in Hernani. Luis, a family man, would climb it with his sons and daughters because he knew it was a very healthy exercise and it was an excellent opportunity to bond* the family. They must follow the tradition.

     4^th generation Adarraga, Isabel, a babe of 10 months and Alexandra Schuster-Adarraga, (comfortably packed in her mother's womb,7 month pregnant) went all the way up.  Pilar made the special trip from Paris, for the spreading of the ashes of her father's Juan Bautista's ceremony, in the Mairubaratza  (cromlech) of Elurzulo, Adarra.

   Climbing Adarramendi (mountain) is more than a tradition . It is a devotion!

    To win is a pleasure.

   In one of our last climbs to Adarra and we were facing the steep last 100 metres, he challenged me to be first to the top. He said “nik izango naizela lehen tontorrean, apustu bat egingo dizut.  Sagardo botila bat jokatuko degu. Bai?”: (Basque for, I challenge you that I’ll be first at the mail box at the top. I’ll bet you one bottle of cider. Do you accept? I reminded him, as a joke, that father had forbidden us to bet. But considering that I was quite fit from playing international squash and I was 7 years his junior I accepted.

   When we climb down to “Besabi”, the “Jatetxe” (restaurant in Basque) our departing and arrival point to climb to and from Adarra, Jose Mari Pagola, the owner, served us the cider and I had to pay. Battitt was looking intensively to me and really enjoying his drink. Me too, although a bit hurt in my pride, enjoyed the drink, consoled by the saying that one has to learn to lose in order to win. I don’t think Juan Bautista ever heard of it.

*When I decided to migrate to Australia, I said to my father that I was going on my own and when I had saved some money, I would bring across my fiancé Maria Rosa. My father said that what you build together is what stands. If you love your fiancé take her with you! I did follow his advice and here we are.

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