Photo : Cruccone / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 3.0)
Canyons d'holzarté et d'Olhadubi
The Holzarté gorges, also called Holtzarte or Holçarté, cut into the Haute-Soule massif in the commune of Larrau, in the Basque Country. A narrow canyon carved into limestone, it is between 100 and 300 metres deep. The Basque name, Holtze arte, means roughly "between the walls", which describes the site well. These gorges formed some 80 million years ago.
The Holzarté footbridge is the main attraction: 70 metres long, it spans the void more than 130 metres above the bottom of the canyon, at about 580 metres' altitude. It was built in 1920 by Italian workers employed by a sawmill in Tardets, to allow timber to be harvested in the area. The Olhadubi canyon, a tributary, joins the main gorges at about 420 metres' altitude.
You reach it on foot from the Logibar inn, on the D 26 road, by a path of about 45 minutes to the footbridge. A longer loop, of about four hours, goes via the Col d'Ardakotxea, at 985 metres.
