The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change, but the realist adjusts the sails – El pesimista se queja del viento, el optimista espera que este cambie, pero el realista ajusta las velas.

Date: 2nd July, 2023

Section: Santander to Boo de Piélagos

Region: Cantabria

Staying: Boo de Piélagos

Albergue Piedad Villa Salva – Private Albergue, private room €50 per night breakfast. Community dinner €10. Dorm would have been €25.

Recommend, yes … absolutely! Big ✔️. Clean, friendly, bed, restaurant and bar on site. Healthy and tasty evening meal.

Instagram: Link to extra photos and daily caption.

Today:

Hola, I’m back! Picking up where I left off last year in Santander. It really is amazing that yet another year has passed. One thing I enjoy about walking this camino in stages is that walking each year puts some space between each walk, and thus allows what has unfolded for me on the trail to come into my life at home. Or not. Sometimes I read my journal or posts from the year before and I think ‘oh, yeah I still haven’t gotten a grip on that’! A bit like this past year. I still haven’t managed to get consistency in my fitness.

As you have probably come to understand about me one of the things I love about the camino are the people you meet, despite often shying away from the masses and enjoying solo walks and rooms. In fact, I would say the characters of my camino stories it is one of the big reasons I come back. If it was simply the landscape I could go on many beautiful hikes in Europe (of which I do hope to do more of when the time is right). So, in light of this I am going to do this trip a little differently and choose mostly shared accommodation.

After reading a few camino blogs I have pre booked the first three nights and have planned my route based on the recommendation of these. I am also going to self cater a little more. In the past year I have made some dietary changes and hope to not lose my rhythm while being away from home. Travel can seriously interfere with habit forming when they aren’t yet solid. Living in Europe for 5 years has meant a lot of travel, which is of course a wonderful privilege, but it also made growing roots in one place and setting into habits a little more challenging.

In Santander I stayed at a private hotel type accommodation. I enjoyed chatting with one of the guests. She was here for a surf camp and after was going to hike in the pyrenees with a backpack and tent. She was 21, full of beautiful big world optimistic views and was off hiking to test her limits. I thought this might an interesting way to think along this camino. While I don’t have an issue with testing my physical limits I do have other limits I allow to get in my way. Maybe I could start to notice these little triggers a little more and become curious about them.

Today I was planning to hike in to Boo de Piélagos, a casual 14 kms from where I was and a shorter day to ease into my camino. My guidebook rated this as one of the dreariest walks of this camino. ‘Flat, paved and little to see’ it says. As mentioned, I haven’t improved my fitness this past year, if anything it has deteriorated. I am in full peri menopause. I hurt in ways I have never experienced. Sometimes if feels like I go from one injury to the next and it feels most days like my motivation and brain power is on some sort of hiatus. When I read over my first stage of this camino two years ago – I wonder where that mountain goat is. Is she still in me? I still feel her.

The guidebook says a there is a much more scenic coastal variant, but it’s long and it’s completely without waymarkers. The host at the hostel is adamant I should take this variant.

“How hard can it be” I thought. Famous last words!

Just stick to the coast line. My soul is still of a mountain goat. Just stick to the coastline … that thought would bite me. The coastal variant was 100% one of the most beautiful scenic walks that I have walked, but OMG it was the extreme of everything: weather, emotions, language, difficulty! Limits were tested. There was a point when I stopped for some lunch (delicious lunch) at which time I considered getting in a taxi. A taxi – ME! The I must walk every step purist. If there were rooms close by I think I would have stopped.

I did at one point need to rely on the tech freak (husband) at home to map me a path to get though and out of some overgrown scrub paths. This image of a shipwreck above that I captured along the way … well it was how I felt when I arrived. Dilapidated. I couldn’t face a dorm room and was so thrilled that I cold upgrade myself for an extra €25 to a private double room with my own bathroom. Relief. Sometimes you just need to be able to spread yourself out. Well I do. My limits had been pushed enough today and this is also a time I want to enjoy. No doubt there are a whole lot of life lessons for me in today, the road less travelled, don’t quit the best was around the corner and all that! And that of course limits when in balance are healthy, but that is for another day to think about.

After showering and composing myself I ventured down to the community dinner. It was perfect and just what I needed. Most of the hikers/pilgrims have been walking for sometime but I felt like I could get in the flow quite easily. I spent most of the dinner chatting with Meghan, an American living in Portugal. She is a very strong, solid character who seems to know herself well and still open to listen to others. I admire that. I didn’t stay long beyond dinner as I wanted to get off my feet and get an early night. I had plans of blogging this camino live on this new camino blog but I was too tried to consider this. An instagram update and some journal notes were all I could muster. Tomorrow I will just follow the paths with the yellow arrows.

Buen camino friends – I’m tired, but I’m back and glad to be.

Highlight:

Aside from the rain, the getting lost and the need to dig in to grit – there were so many moments of feeling amazing and glad to be here, feeling this, seeing this, experiencing this.

Ho hum:

Sometimes we need to change the plan, change the course we are on. Maybe this will be one of my lessons along this walk. And limits, it is ok to have them. Day 1 and already camino deep.

Each person knows their own limitations, problems and what’s best for themselves – Cada uno sabe donde aprieta el zapato.

Date: 16th July, 2022

Section: Santoña to Güemes

Region: Cantabria

Staying: Güemes

Albergue La Cabaña del Abuelo Peuto – Donativo, shared cabins.

Recommended for the experience.

Instagram: Link to extra photos and daily caption.

Today:

Standing at the top of the cliffs today and looking down I thought ‘WOW, the world really is so, so big’. Gosh a long walk in the outdoors is good for some perspective. While yesterday was hot, hard and sweaty today was a completely different day. Perhaps my body is easing into the long days and my mind is letting go a bit, decisions are getting easier. I think I am defragging! Trusting myself.

* Defragmentation organizes storage on your computer by consolidating files and other data saved on your hard drive. When there’s not enough space on your disk to store an entire file in one place, the file is broken down into smaller pieces called fragments. Defragmentation puts those pieces back together

The camino like any travel experience becomes a part of you. I am a little bit of this place and it is now a little bit of me. With every hour I spend hiking, alone in my head and crossing paths with people, nature and everyday life I am humbled. What a privilege to be able to experience a week of my life in this way, be it barefoot on the sand, scrambling up the rocks, admiring the heaving fig trees as I pass by, or simply the freedom to walk with no real urgency to arrive. I’m stronger for it and this is something I needed, because the more I walk the more I realise that I haven’t been lately.

Tonight I’m staying at Albergue La Cabaña del Abuelo Peuto. It is probably the most famous donativo (choose what you give) albergues along the Camino del Norte. You can read of its history here. In short, it exists because one person, Father Ernesto, dedicated his family home to creating an experience for others. Dinner and breakfast are prepared by volunteers and there is an expected attendance at a group gathering in the evening. ‘If we don’t do this society together, we’re going to sink’ Ernesto said at this meeting tonight. He also said he is happy to be an old man, even in a world where being old is hidden. I like thinking about that thought. I admire what he has created here, with his strong will and a desire for something different.

Check in was a lengthy procedure. I think there is a volunteer in training but there is lots of chatter, (the Spanish is too fast for me) and a lot of looking at the big sheet of room allocations. Gratefully, I accepted the dring of cold water with orange slices and eventually I was allocated a room. I am sharing with an Irish mum who is walking with her 11 year old daughter. I am in awe of this little family, what an impressive undertaking. We have a bathroom in the cabin so we have one of the more private ones. I spend quite some time with Sunshine and her daughter chatting on our balcony.

Remember earlier in the day I was thinking the world was so, so BIG!?! Well, get this – they are from West Cork in Ireland. We spend 4 month living in East Cork a few years ago and we have 1 degree of separation. Her friend lived just 500 meters from us in the tiny Irish country village of Whitegate. What are the chances! As BIG as the world is, also it is so, so SMALL.

Dinner is a community affair. I sit with Sunshine, her daughter, Kate is here too and I also meet Eva from Slovakia. Eva, a Spanish translator has walked many a camino and is just oozing kindness and interest. She is open and easy to talk to and I feel an instant connection with her. Dinner with new friends from around the world, each with their own story and a deep love of the camino. How very ‘of’ the camino this kind of experience is. This does happens easier when you stay in shared accommodation, for me at least. Another pilgrim has been added to our cabin, but so far we haven’t seen much of him.

Highlight:

Lots today! The spectacular walking and the talking. Hearing the stories of others and how they travel, how different we all are and how we each walk our own way along the camino. And yet how very much the same we all are. Humanity.

Ho hum:

I realised today I am carrying more than I have in the past. Having teenagers is harder than having little ones. Worry is a heavy kind of backpack. Appreciate more, worry less … trust more.

If you fall seven times, get up eight – Si te caes siete veces, levántate ocho (seems apt for today)!

Date: 15th July, 2022

Section: Castro-Urdiales to Santoña

Region: Cantabria

Staying: Santoña

Hospedaje La Tortuga – Small hotel, double room €50 per night

Recommend, yes ✔️comfy bed, clean, well located and a bath.

Instagram: Link to extra photos and daily caption.

Today:

After days of seeing no one, finally, today I met some pilgrims. Actually, right from at the beginning of the day! Within the first 10 minutes of setting out I met Kate, an American teaching English in Madrid. We met at the imposing Iglesia de Santa María del Puerto. Oh Spain just so much history and architectural wonder for this little Aussie. I haven’t chatted with anyone since arriving so I might of, probably, (definitely) was a motor mouth/chatty Cathy! I think I may have scared Kate off a little because she was quick to go and find some breakfast and not get caught walking with me. As you can see by the above photo the sun was already shining, ready to roast those of us who were out walking today.

Today had a lot of everything! Forest, villages, cliffside, the dreaded roadside walking but also some toes in the sand walking. Dang it was so hot. Heatwave hot. I even carried cans of Aquarius, the Spanish electrolyte drink with me. I am hiking ok but I hurt a lot and for the first time ever I feel out of shape. In chatting with my husband, the greatest supporter of my camino’ing he said ‘it’s ok … think of this as getting yourself back to your fitness base’. Ok, that sounds solid and like an idea I can work with, I’ll do that. This is me walking myself back into my base fitness. Keep breathing!

So you can see the contrast, this is what the trails looked like today. Most camino photos are so pretty, we’re showing you the awe inspiring brilliance of this mighty walk but the reality is also road walking. It is never joyful and in the middle of a European heatwave it’s truly BLOODY BRUTAL. I might have to rethink my obsession with waterproof hiking shoes, or as they shall now be known fecking feet furnaces!

A nicer thing to chat about. Let me tell you about Alex a friendly Spaniard camino walker. Just before the above beach shot I met Kate at a cafe/bar and we stopped for some lunch. Alex, in chatting with the barman learnt of a ‘shortcut’. We could walk across this beach and in doing so we could cut out 3kms of highway walking. Kate, who through her time in Madrid has learnt Spanish got the low down from Alex, who in turn didn’t speak much English. OMG – how is this for the camino providing the right set of coincidences in the absolute right moment!

Kate and I set off along the beach. Gladly it seems I didn’t scare her that much after all. But just in case I reigned in my ‘I haven’t talked to anyone in days excitement’. Lucky for Kate I was knackered anyhow. We were assured by the barman (via Alex) that the tide was out so there would be no problem in us taking this shortcut. Of course, if you know me this could sound a bit like a recipe for disaster. I could get myself lost because it’s not written in any of the guide books and there’s no map, my sense of direction has no markers! But the 3km we could shave from the day and the highway walking – there was no question, we were doing it. So barefoot walking on the sand we went. Which is always good, soul kinda good but on this day my feet also appreciated the massage.

After the beach along some more highway I lost Kate. I did what I rarely do when I’m hiking, I put headphones in and I sung (don’t worry, just one and no cars there was space to walk). The highway walking really has no joy, it’s hard yakka, especially in this heat. Perhaps it’s a good test of grit or maybe it’s just flat out crazy. Probably it’s just like plodding through some of the tasks in normal life, boring, challenging, but necessary. Music always helps me shift energy when I’m feeling like things aren’t rosy. And this long day wasn’t feeling so rosy, so whatever gets you through!

As I was nearing the point where I needed to take the ferry over to Santoña my end point for the day I’m not gonna lie, I toyed with the idea of hitching the last 500 metres to the ferry. It all hurt. But I was a sweaty mess so for sure no one would appreciate me in their car. And there’s the fact that I’m kind of a stickler for walking all the steps (for me, everyone else of course can do them, natch). And even more truthfully I wouldn’t ever hitch hike, I don’t need that kind of fear 🙂

Mostly today the food wasn’t great, I never feel good these days if I eat eggs and bread. Thankfully, dinner (above) was a treat; crisp and fresh. Again, I am in my own room so I enjoyed getting my feet up to rest. I need the rest because tomorrow I am back at it and another truth – no matter the hurt I do love it here. What choice is there when you love it but to walk onward. Tomorrow is an interesting day I will stay at the infamous Albergue La Cabaña del Abuelo Peuto. More on that tomorrow … for now dear ones, goodnight.

Highlight:

Of course it was starting to meet some camino characters. I’ve walked enough caminos to know my friends that this is the beginning of something.

Ho hum:

Tell me, am I crazy?