Those of you who have been reading my blog for a while (ok, since at least 2016!) will know that I have walked the Camino de Santiago from St Jean Pied-de-Port in France to Santiago de Compostela in Spain, over the course of 5 summers (but 7 years thanks to C*vid) and those who know me in real life will know that I have nothing but AMAZING things to say about this experience. So much so that, when a group of us finished the final leg in the summer of 2022, we all immediately started looking at different routes to walk. This is Day 4 of our walk from San Sebastián to Bilbo on the Camino del Norte that we completed in July 2024.
Ok, so after Day 3 on the Camino del Norte where we walked a tough 25+ km (and were on our feet a good 2 hours longer than we expected to be), we were sort of hoping for an “easy” (ok, “easier”) day walking to Gernika. Despite a promising start, it was not meant to be. This was THE hardest day on any legs of the Camino that I have walked (and that is saying something!).
The start of the day was a lovely stroll out of Markina… Beautiful paths, inspirational quotes and exercise parks (because, you know, we hadn’t done enough exercise so far that week!)
And even some furry friends…
And some alarming signs…
But mostly, lovely paths…
It really was a gorgeous morning strolling along to our first pit stop of
Bolíbar… (yes, the “ancestral homeland of Simón Bolívar!)…
This was only about 7km into the “24.7km” day (yes, I put that distance in inverted commas for a reason…) and while we didn’t *really* need a break, we took one because… how lovely!
We saw one of my favorite rural Spanish things – the bread delivery bag!
However tempting it was to while away a few hours in that lovely plaza, we pushed on – in just over 1km, we came across the gorgeous Monasterio de Zanarruza:
With this stunning interior in its church…
Buoyed up by the loveliness of both our morning pit stops, we moved on. For a while, there were a few interesting signs to read…
(gee, I wish we’d known about this “ruta” before we started!)
And so, we pressed onto Muntibar – where we planned on having a picnic lunch. It was only another few kilometres but it was terrain that was foretelling the rest of the day – all over the place and loads of ups and downs…
You know things are dicey when there are STAIRS to use on the Camino! There were some bright spots and some decent roads so we couldn’t complain too much (also: NO MUD – see previous days’ walking – and NO RAIN!).
I actually don’t have any photos of Muntibar and our picnic there but there were a couple of bars and a pharmacy (we didn’t find) and we sat in the shade of the church to eat, dangerously close to a bus stop where buses kept passing us with “Gernika” as the destination. Hmmm… It was VERY tempting! However, we figured, we were just about halfway there and “how bad can it be, since it’s not raining?” (famous last words). I mean, the countryside was BEAUTIFUL but it felt like a LONG walk…
Roughly 5km later, we stumbled into Olabe where we stopped for a drink (or two or three)… but we still had something like 13km to go according to the map so we pressed on again. The waymarkers were giving false hope…
(lol, marking Santiago on the road – so far from there!).
The afternoon went by under a relentless sun through a lot of different (thankfully, not muddy) terrain.
You can see there were the occasional purpose-built walkways and a few waymarkers (but actually very few, considering)..
There was also a goat sitting in a chair in the middle of a field. It felt suitably ridiculous as we wondered if we would ever arrive (and we were WAY off road now so no opportunity for a bus or taxi to pass us and grab a lift…)
*some of us* will admit to Googling trains from Gernika to Lezama while they were walking…
Honestly, this was a beautiful day, scenery-wise but it was LONG and hard and we were SO tired…
FINALLY…
Yes – that’s Gernika in the distance.
Actually still SO far away… There was quite a bit of confusion on entering the town and we were directed to the “real Camino” (there are always a few alternate routes, especially approaching big towns) where we saw this…
Um, no thank you. Any path that needs a handrail is not one I want to take if there’s an alternate.
Which was this:
Yep, a road and a park and more roads until…
Could it be… ?
We made it… (actually it was still 1km or so before we got to the hotel…)
THIS. WAS. HARD.
(aka: NOT 24.7km)
Showered and snacking on the best sweets…
I immediately got back to researching trains for the next day…
We made a group decision that we would spend the morning in Gernika (since it has a lot to see) and forego 20km for a bit of culture and a rest. And off we went out for dinner. Gernika is a sweet town where everything is (thankfully) very close and walkable. We chose a place where lots of locals seemed to be eating dinner and were not disappointed.
(lol on the amount of jamón in the main course – that’s easily $40CAD worth right there – the dish cost around $15…).
And the cake, well, when you’ve walked nearly 28km, you order cake. But locals saw what we ordered and made us order the other cake as well…
And with that, full bellies and legs about to fall off, we retired for the evening, dreaming of a day without 20km walking involved!
Oh and there was this…
Stay tuned to see what we did with our “day off” the Camino – (spoiler: reader, we did not regret it!).
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Disclosure: I researched Camino tour operators independently and chose the Camino Travel Center based on a number of features such as flexibility to accommodate a couple of “splits” in some of the longer days, price, and customer service. They were, in fact, the first company I came across in my very first Google search and the one I ended up booking with. From the initial inquiry to the actual trips, they have been a pleasure to deal with and we have been very impressed with the service provided (bag transportation) and the accommodation choices. I was not compensated to write about this trip in any way but I love sharing companies and products I believe in with my readers. I couldn’t recommend the Camino Travel Center more. Stay tuned to see what summer 2025 brings!
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Whoa, what a DAY.