Cuando el sol es perfecto! When the sun is perfect!

Date: 14th October, 2021

Section: Irún to Donostia – San Sebastián

Region: The Basque Country

Staying: Donostia – San Sebastián

A Room In The City – a private hostel.

Dorm for 6 people, €18 each per night.

Recommend, yes ✔️nice clean beds, lockable pack drawer, nice outdoor terrace area, clean and roomy bathrooms.

Instagram: Link to extra photos and daily caption.

Today:

After a delicious (read: two mates, pinchos, vino blanco, comfy bed and no bunks – yet) overnight in Irún we head out around 9am to begin our Camino del Norte. A quick first morning photo. It’s fair to say our eyes were sparking, our smiles rhapsodic and our steps, well, naturally they were springy with first day enthusiasm. Oh la la adventure! Yes we had those excited feels as we set off in search of our first yellow arrow.

As happens when you stop along a city street on the camino a local will guide you towards where you need to be. Sometimes (often), they will go off their path to walk you to your correct path. Today, it was an elderly Spaniard with all the hand expressions and finger pointing towards the mountains. He wanted to be sure we took the high path over mountain. ‘El sol es perfecto’ he said (the sun is perfect). I actually thought he may well walk with us!

We took the high path. The one with the sign for alpinist pilgrims, ha ha that sounds hardcore adventurous doesn’t it! Our Spanish guide was right is was a beautiful and sunny day. Perfect for climbing and walking in mountains. And there on this first day, in the first few hours we found ourselves straight into the camino mode. The birds were chirping, the space felt infinite, the air fresh and the noise of the world just faded away. I pinch myself – what a privilege it is to be able to walk a long walk. I remind myself – I really must take good care of myself so I can keep doing do this for a looooooong time.

There was a whole lot of belly laughter walking with Fi and a whole lot of (probably more) sweat! My muscles were so warm that at one stage I stretched my shoulders back and my back did a beautiful crack, my favourite Melbourne osteo would have called it a hard crunch! The most satisfying type, similar to what happens when your favourite osteopath or chiropractor realigns your spine. Hmm … possibly there’s something in that, the natural way to align your spine – just get hot, sweaty, carry a pack and add hours and hours of hiking up and down mountains.

You never know what lays ahead along the camino and we were spoilt from the beginning of the day. Not long had we been walking when we come upon a quaint 16th century church and expansive views over the Bidasoa valley. Always, I’m reminded how ancient these paths are as we wander past neolithic dolmans, medieval towers and castle ruins. Mostly though, it was the feeling of traversing the top of a mountain, descending through forest paths, taking a surprise water taxi and Spanish farm life existing alongside the camino – as it probably always has. It is humbling to walk here in Spain. We really are a drop in the ocean, us people and this moment in time.

We didn’t come across many pilgrims today along the path and we didn’t meet any until our arrival in San Sebastián. I arrived in a little earlier than Fi and found my way to the hostel. So far we are sharing with a German pilgrim (Peter) and his daughter (Jenny). Peter had walked the Norte camino before. He was here to walk this one with his daughter for her first time. They seemed very friendly but were heading out into town to explore and eat so we didn’t chat long.

• Find a place to hang the daily washing and hope it will dry. If not my pack will be a washing line with clothes hanging from it tomorrow
• Tiger balm my feet, give them a little massage or roll on ball and rest them by keeping them upright until dinner
• Fill the 1L water bladder and sip it down (maybe add a sachet of electrolytes), eat an orange or a banana
• Write in my journal, look over my photos of the day, post something and have a read of tomorrow’s stage

I’ve been to San Sebastián before, it’s one of my favourite cities. Definitely top 3 in Europe, perhaps even number 1 in Spain. This wasn’t like a usual San Seb visit. Once Fi arrives back and is showered we head out for dinner. Normally, I am standing in the cobblestone lanes, working my way through delicious pinchos, this is not happening tonight. A. There’s the need to sit, non negotiable for feet that have just hiked 25kms. And B. There’s the real need not to have to make too many decisions! It was a long day.

Because tonight we are staying in a hostel and not a pilgrim’s albergue there’s no curfew. Still, we are tired so after dinner, a lovely sit down plated affair we head back for an early night. Everyone else is already back in the room and already quietly in bed. I’m happy there are no party animals who will arrive in later. Now I can crawl my contented body into my bunk bed, draw the little privacy curtain and close this day. Ear plugs in, eye mask on – it’s time to sleep.

Highlight:

Knowing that there were a million reasons not to say yes to this spontaneous and unplanned adventure but deeply glad that I did. The kids will be fine, traveling is happening again (we have vax QR codes to make it happen ;)) and a long walk combined with the ease of the camino, feels like right where I need to be.

Today’s ho hum:

Ok, so I thought we’d booked a female only room. When I saw Peter in the room I mentioned that to him. Then I went straight down to reception and checked. It was a mixed dorm. Did I have to say something, did it even matter? I mean honestly dorms are rarely separated on the camino or in hostels. I didn’t feel unsafe. When I returned I think he was a bit nervous, he really wanted me to know he was here with his daughter and for me to meet her. I could have handled that better, just quietly gone and checked at reception. Hmm … maybe a bit of cooped up covid tension to address.