We woke with our alarm at 5 am intending to pack quickly and rush off to pick up the Camino someplace ahead of where we’d left it yesterday. The temperature was scheduled to reach 36 by 11 o’clock, rise to 38 by 12 o’clock and then slowly drop to high 20s by late afternoon. So an early start was clearly essential.

We turned over and went back to sleep, finally rising nearly three hours later. We packed, picked up our walking poles and headed out.

We also took note of some taxi telephone numbers – just in case.

There was a slight breeze and although the temperature was 28 when we left we thought that with a quick early spurt to the beach at La Arena, we’d grab a decent, long lunch in air conditioned comfort to get us through the heat of the day before continuing our westward journey.

As was yesterday, so was today as we made our way through a seemingly never ending suburb of Bilbao.

There’s clearly some antipathy here to toxic gases spewing out of the local industrial complex.

We walked for quite a few km alongside a fast cycling route, clearly designed for those Lycra clad conquistadors who tore past us in a shimmering haze of colour. Leaving the cyclists we came through a small village with this delightful mural.

At the end of an ever so long piece of tarmac we arrived at La Arena.

The temperature reached 38 and we bar hopped for nearly two hours drinking an agua con gas each at least twice in each of three bars. Depressing places, hot, miserable but necessary to wait until the temperature had dropped sufficiently to allow us to continue.

Finally, we headed off once again, crossing the beach on a high bed of wooden sleepers before ascending 120 steps to wind our way around the headland.

We walked, we looked back

And we noticed …

We passed through a tunnel, exciting because clearly it was only the wood that was holding up the rest of the mountain.

Some 6 km from Castro Urdiales and we were running out of water, energy and motivation. Thankfully a taxi passed and shortly afterwards disgorged his teenage passengers on their way to a rave in the rocks we’d just passed. We flagged him down and for 15€ he took us the remaining distance to the hostal. We were knackered. Thankfully temperatures are back in the lower 20s and we won’t have to hide indoors any more.

We’ve showered, had dinner having been waited on by Chris Hemsworth’s younger brother (he assured us that he wasn’t, but he’s a dead lookalike) and are back in the hotel.

For future reference, the Camino Norte sucks. It’s 98.37% on tarmac, 57% is either walking on the main carriageway or one foot to the side. It’s at least 50% more expensive, 200% less interesting, 1000% more touristy and there are virtually no peregrinos. It’s not a camino, it’s road walking at its worst through suburban northern Spain, or at least the coastal section is.

With that said, we’ll walk to Laredo tomorrow, grab a taxi to either Bilbao or Santander first thing Monday morning and then get a bus to Burgos to rejoin the wave that left St. Jean when we did, Clifford et al. We’ll slot back in and work our way across the meseta (temperatures in the early 20s – and sometimes raining ! Yay!) to Leon on our way to Santiago. At least that’s the new plan 😊.

Buen camino

Addendum : we’re not walking to Laredo tomorrow, instead we’re catching a 10 am bus to Santander and then a bus from Santander to Burgos at 15:30. We’ll spend two nights in Burgos before rejoining our wave.