10 JUNE 2025
It was going to be a hot day! Did I say that when the sun is shining, it makes a big difference to your walking experience? Unfortunately that is not always the case, especially when it is nudging 30 degrees with high humidity. I think we are getting fussy but I suppose that comes with age!
We left the monasterio without breakfast (well some of us did). Judging by what we had for dinner, we weren’t going to hang around and wait for breakfast knowing that we were facing a hot day. We managed to snag a coffee and a couple of tortillas each about 4km along the trail and then purchased some lunch supplies in a small general store before heading off again.
Now that we have left the spectacular coastline, we are now enjoying the more typical Camino experience of walking through Spain’s rural areas and small villages. Whilst it was a relatively short walk of only 18km today, the heat definitely had an impact which made it more challenging than it should have been.
However, with about 5km to go and the last climb and decent to tackle, we were greeted by a local farmer on his tiny tractor wanting to assist us with an easier route to Gernika to help us avoid the steep climb. Somehow he was about to convey and convince us (all in Spanish) that this was the better way and who were we to argue with a local who was trying to help us make it a little easier in the heat of the day. He also earned our trust when he asked where we were from and after answering him we were from Australia, he replied “Kangaroo!”
A mega day tomorrow attempting 30+km and 850m ascent into Bilbao on another hot and humid day with potential thunderstorms in the afternoon just to increase the challenge! Bring it on!