Month: April 2018

Having coffee on the beach in Zarautz.

in Zarautz.

Reports that Wynette and Charlie are on a beach vacation and not an austere and challenging pilgrimage are FAKE NEWS.

Can you spot the “mouse”? That is Getaria where we are staying tonight. Pretty good surf.

Post by Wynette: That’s a St. James shell on top and backpack on bottom. I just looked up translation for “Bide on” in the Basque language since I didn’t recognize it as Spanish. It means “On the Way”! I.e., Bide is the Basque word for Camino. I’ve been seeing the word bide around but kept thinking it was some Spanish word I should know.

They work for cold Wynettes too.

Post by Wynette: We met 6 other pilgrims today. All very friendly and nice (and fast). They were from: Vienna, Ireland, Paris, Germany, Latvia, and Spain. We were by far the oldest. Charlie thinks we may be the only old people not scared off by this Camino route’s reputation as a hard walk. But since we plan to walk relatively short days I’m sure we can do it.

We walked 1.2 kilometers today on a very steep downhill Roman road. Kind of cool knowing how old it was but Roman roads are hell to walk on.

Post by Charlie, photo chosen by Wynette: Our internal clocks are still adrift so we wake up to an alarm at 8:00 am and didn’t get off until 9:30. Round the beach in San Sebastián and up, up, up into the mountains to Orio. From 0 to 1032 feet but with the ups and downs we went up and down 2200 feet total. Max gradient 15% and min gradient -15%. 10.9 miles, a little farther than we like to go but there were not any intermediate places to stop.

It was so great to be back on the trail. Past Basque farmsteads, wonderful ocean views all along the way, some mud, a breakfast stop, and ending in the cute little town of Orio and a very nice Casa Rural.