Monday 2 October 2023

Camino week 3 - 2023 Oct

As I embark on week 3 it's really funny how much we've done.

The arrows are well positioned and the light is largely shining on what walks we've done.

Week 1 was Irun to San Sebastian and on to Bilbao.

It was beautifully brutal it every sense. The walking was tough with hills and also underfoot conditions. I walked the 44,000 steps from Irun twice and probably did nearly 50,000 the first day after taking a wrong turning at the outset. Leaving at 7am arriving at 6pm it was a good warm up for the week to come. We missed one stretch from markina to Guernica so will catch that next time. The biggest eye opener was probably that there were more places to stay than we thought although markina does have a shortage of facilities and so they offer rooms in houses. It's also most remote in terms of transport. Guernica on the other hand is easily reached from bilbao. Markina is probably best got to buy taxi from a tram stop although public transport via the coast is the option. It's definitely the new walk to do but weather dependent as the underfoot conditions make it very dangerous.

Week 2 saw us concentrate on the section from Pamplona to Logrono and was positively easy by comparison. Both distance and underfoot conditions were easy and using Estella as a base meant no pack either. I'd say we just kept ticking over and then stopping as the 30 degree heat was oppressive from 2pm onwards.

Week 3 starts with a day off bussing to San Sebastian then Bilbao before finally arriving in Santander for an evening on the tapas y vino.

Next day is an early bus to Burgos dump the bags and get walking along the river arlanzon and try to get 10-15km in before the heat does for us. The next day will see us try belorado to Monte's de oca. Then on Thursday Oct 5th make it to Cardenuela Rio Pico.

Thereafter we will go with the flow but hopefully make it to hornillos on Friday via a walk a bus and a walk before using fromista as a base for Friday/Saturday/Sunday 8th

Options will then exist to get to Leon for Monday 9th or getting train back up to santander before Gijon 11th


No comments:

Post a Comment