Strange thing happened last night. Sometimes at home I will have a nightmare and then I'll wake up, realise I'm safely tucked up in bed and feel really nice and secure. Last night, twice, I had dreams of being all nicely tucked up in bed at home and then woke up and realised, to my … Continue reading Day 9 Onton to Laredo 22.5mls 2638ft – Totals 135.2ml 18729ft →

A lovely walk through Bilbao this morning. It's a very fine city and well worth a visit if you haven't been.We got to Portugalete just before lunch and were taken across the River Ria on the oldest working transporter bridge in Europe.Very surprised but very pleased to find escalators taking people (and pilgrims) up the … Continue reading Day 8 Bilbao to Onton 21.6ml 1132ft Totals 112.7.ml 16091ft →

They say it never rains but it pours and that was perfectly correct this morning, both metaphorically and literally.Poor Barbara was up for most of the night, having eaten something that positively disagreed with her and the rain and thunder were torrential around the time that we were due to set off. There was no … Continue reading Day 7 Derio to Bilbao 6.7ml 1288ft Total 91.1ml 14959ft →

A short day planned for today but we decided to lengthen it a bit so that tomorrow's 18 miler comes down a bit. This meant we aimed for a "hostel juvenil" in Derio, with 80 beds, just off the actual Camino route. As we got closer we started asking people for directions but very much … Continue reading Day 6 Gernika to Derio 16.05ml 2234ft. Total 100.4ml 13905ft →

A very disappointing development this morning as Gerald has had to make the very tough decision to pull out of our Camino. When you see how much his knee has swollen up over the last few very tough days it's obvious that he had no choice and had to pull out before permanent damage was … Continue reading Day 5 Markina to Gernica-Lumo 16.2mls 2134ft – Total 84.4mls 13671ft →

I'm sure a person can only sweat so much before they just melt completely and become a puddle on the ground. I'm think we are very nearly reaching that point 🙂 Last week a pilgrim, this week a puddleRather scarily the BBC weather forecast says the temperature here is rising quite considerably the weekend after … Continue reading Day 4 Deba to Markina-Xemein 16.5ml 3057ft – Total 68.2ml 11557ft →

Absolute disaster with the accommodation situation today. There was no beds within 10 miles of Deba. I managed to get somewhere eventually, only to get a taxi out there to find that Hotels. Com had defaulted for some unknown reason to Oct 17th. Luckily the Casa Rural took pity on us and found us alternative … Continue reading Day 3 Zarautz to Deba16.2mls 3100ft – Total 51.7mls 8500ft →

Interesting answer from our Albergue last night. When somebody asked if they had wifi the answer was "we don't have WiFi, that's why it's paradise here" 🙂 The vast majority of people in the Albergue last night were youngsters (under 30 that is) which surprised me because the vast majority on the Francis were around … Continue reading Day 2 San Sebastian to Zarautz 18.7 ml 2200ft. Total 35.5ml Ascent 5400ft →

We knew today was going to be hard as climbing 3200ft and walking nearly 17mls with a 3 ton bag on your back never sounded an easy option (and lovely, super fit June from Norway, who walked the first week earlier in the year had warned me that even though I do a lot of … Continue reading Day 1 Irun to San Sebastian 16.8mls 3200 ft Total distance 16.8mls Ascent 3200ft →

Arrived at Manchester airport in nice time which was probably just as well as the first obstacle was encountered when we found the multi storey car park for Terminal 1 was full and we were diverted to the arrivals car park. Obviously more people leaving England than arriving, I wonder why that should be 😙. … Continue reading Day 0 – Manchester to Irun →