Author: Charles Crowley

Hotel breakfasts days in a row: 3 (last one for a while)
Different surfaces walked on: at least 6
High temperature: 74 (It was hot, and tomorrow it will be 76)
The Camino aka Saint James will provide moments: 2 (a fountain with cool water just as we were running out and a lovely cool breeze for the last two miles)
Alcohol units: 2 (Charlie has a weakness for Asturias sidra so he had one in a bar and we bought a 75 cL bottle at the grocery store. Full disclosure: Wynette had some too. Only Charlie likes the sour kind but this one was sweet.)

We like to start out in the morning and walk for 2-4 miles and then stop at a bar and have fried eggs and toast. This requires a middle point with a bar. So far there have been no services for the whole walk so we had breakfast at the hotel. Starting tomorrow we’ll get into our pattern.

The strange meal hours in Spain actually work well for us. We have breakfast around 10 at a bar, lunch around 2-3 when after we get into the town we are staying in and something simple for dinner, like cereal in our room or a salad we buy at a grocery store.

Camino path changes a lot and the walk from San Sebastián to Orio was typical. We started on a road with a sidewalk for a while, then some small suburban streets walking by people’s houses. These were in a semi-rural setting with ocean views but still close to San Sebastián. Then into the woods on a rocky dirt path. The rocky part is good when there is mud but hard to walk on. You have to watch your feet every step. Then some gravel road. Then more rocky paths. Then a nice dirt path that would be terrible in or after a rain. On our last trip, in 2018, it was muddy and we were clinging to the barbed wire fence beside the path. That led to a bloody barbed wire incident recorded in the 2018 blog. The worst section was a mile or more near the end of a “Roman road” which was very steep and very hard to walk on, but again much better than mud after a rain. Finally asphalt into Orio.

”The Camino will provide” is a common saying among pilgrims. Nothing supernatural, just a consequence of keeping positive, being grateful when good things happen and accepting it with equanimity when bad things happen.

The fountain happened at the perfect time. We normally take only two pints of water and rarely use it up but today was hot. I drank a whole pint right at the fountain and we had plenty of water for the last three miles.

Few things are as satisfying as a cool breeze on a hot day. There is a Peanuts cartoon about that. Luckily, near the ocean cool breezes are common.

We had Bridget Jones blanked on the alcohol units until sidra came into the picture.

GR routes (Grande Randonnée) are a network of long-distance hiking trail mostly in France, Spain, Belgium and the Netherlands. Many Caminos follow GRs. GR-121 goes along Northern Spain and follows the Norte or provides alternative routes, usually closer to the ocean.

Caminos go in only one direction. It is hard to go backwards because you have to look back to see the signs. GRs go in both directions and are signed for both.

One of the thing we like about walking the Camino is that is changes constantly. Here are some of the surfaces we walked on today.

This one is nice to walk on dry but a mess after a rain. It is the site of Charlie’s 2018 barbed wire incident.

This dirt but really mostly rocky trail was the surface for a few miles. Notice the rocks are placed so you can walk on them and avoid the dirt when the rain changes the dirt into mud. Unpleasant to walk on, dangerous too if you are not careful.

For years we have gotten Spanish SIMs from Vodafone. They are kind of the t-mobile of Spain, that is, they usually have the best deals but not always the best coverage. They also have the slow and generally incompetent employees. They did not disappoint today. Wynette got her SIM but it turns out that they do not support eSIMs for prepaid plans. IPhones 14 and 15 (mine) don’t support physical SIMs. My T-mobile eSIM works in Spain but at lower speeds so I’ll just go with that. A quick check of Movistar and Orange (the other Spanish carriers) shows they don’t support eSIMs for prepaid plans either.

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.