Month: April 2024

In the elevator.

I’m all in favor of no smoking in the elevator but silence? I do admit that Wynette and I do talk in the elevator.

Here is a notice from our hotel room.

Is forbidden stronger than not allowed? No walking without shoes?

After getting off the bus we wanted to check our backpacks. Perplexity (google it) led us to a hotel which led us to the tourist office which led us to a phone store which, among other things, checked luggage. So we climbed the little mountain without packs.

The first part of the Norte is Basque country. You may have noticed the oddly spelled names that don’t seem remotely Spanish. Basque is a language isolate and is the last remaining pre-Indo-European language in Europe. Here is a notice from our room so you can compare it to some other languages. It is the one without a flag.

Basque country has an odd language but great pinxos.

Mountains climbed: 1 out of 2
Stair steps missed not climbing the mountain: 312
Stair steps up to Monte Urgull: < 312?(although we walked down also)
Phone SIMs purchased: 1
Phone eSIMs purchased: 0
Backpacks checked: 2

Remember how the first Norte stage was the hardest? After climbing Jaizibel from Irun to Passajes, the camino climbs Mount Ulia on the way to San Sebastián. The forum talks about “endless steps”, actually 312, and the “knee punishing” downhill. We decided against further knee punishing (after all they haven’t been naughty) and take the bus the San Sebastián and walk around there. SS has it’s own Monte Urgull so we climbed it and walked around the town for a total of seven miles.

We’ll talk about phones in the next posts, and backpacks.

The road not taken.

The New Mexico state question is “Red or green?” One big Camino question is “Poncho or rain jacket?” The Camino forum has numerous posts about this. Ponchos are faster to put on but flap around in the wind. To put on a rain jacket you need to take off your pack, get out the rain jacket, put on the separate pack cover and put the pack back on.

This year we are trying something new: the Altus poncho. It is kind of like the “Christmas” answer to the NM question since it is a poncho but it has sleeves and a zipper so is good in the wind. You can put it on by flipping it over your head without taking off your pack. Advice: do this while facing into the wind so the wind will help with the flip. Note that this is exactly the opposite of the advice about pissing into the wind.

The only problem with the Altus is that it looks kind of nerdy. Here is Wynette in hers during our sudden rainstorm. You can judge for yourself.

Pasajes is on a ria, a fairly wide inlet that turns into a river, so it has a part on each side of the ria. (The long way to say ria is estuary. We never knew the word ria until we came to Spain but turns out crossword puzzle makers like the word.) We have only seen the eastern shore.

Tomorrow we cross on the little green boat which ferries you across and runs every ten minutes.

It is a cute little town with one street, right by the ria. Our hotel is one of the first things on the street as you go south.

The first day of the Camino del Norte is the hardest of the whole walk. We did the Norte in 2018 and skipped the first stage. This year we wanted to try it out, seeing that we were six years older. To make it even possible we did two things. We took a taxi up to the Guadalupe Sanctuario which saved four miles and 600 feet of elevation climb. We also decided to stop before San Sebastián which saved four miles. Still it was very hard, harder than we expected.

There are two routes from the Sanctuario: the official route, which is mostly flat except for a descent of 600 feet at the end, and is pretty routine. The second is the Purgatorio route which goes to the top of Mount Jaizkibel.

Right after the two routes split we climbed a ridiculously steep trail. Here is a photo.

After that it goes up and up and on and on. Quite rocky. But the route has spectacular views. Some photos.

Once you pass the mountain top and its towers, you start down. This is steep and rocky and slow going. Finally it merges with the lower trail and it is pretty easy into Pasajes.

Numerous times on the trail we wished we had taken the lower route but when we were back in Pasajes, after checking in and having a lovely meal we decided it was worth it.

Mountains climbed: 1 (1900 feet)
Distance walked: 6.9 (hard) miles (up 1300 feet, down 1900 feet)
Taxi rides: 1 (we skipped the first four miles and 600 feet up)
Maximum heart rate on ridiculously steep first part: 139 (I think my watch alarms when it passes 140)
Number of times during the hike when we wished we had taken the lower route: at least five
Number of times we wished we had taken the lower route after we finished: 0
Most expensive menu del dia: €31.5 (but it was really excellent)
Darling little seaside towns entered: 1 (Pasajes aka in Basque Pasaia was lovely)

We decided we could handle the Purgatorio route. We did but just barely. See a later post on this. There will also be one on Pasajes.