San Sebastián to Orío

We wake up excited to be walking to our next destination today, we are off to Orío 16km away, it is a little overcast as we leave San Sebastián, but this won’t last for long, we have a top of 30 degrees today. We meet George at 8am in the lobby and from there will follow the way and hope we come across a bar to eat breakfast. The walk out of San Sebastián is stunning with an overcast sky and a few early risers either running, walking, cycling or swimming. The Camino follows the beach line, and thankfully we end up finding a bar right at the very end of it, we enjoy a lovely breakfast consisting of a ham & cheese toasted croissant and a coffee. The trail then turns left and takes us up, up, up into a forested area. It’s time to take some pics (code word for suck in a few deep ones and wait for the heart rate to drop a little bit 😉) and watch the fit locals pass us by. We are walking on a dirt path with lots of rocks, we take our time, soaking up the view, we chat with a fellow pilgrim also named George, he is from Argentina and will be finishing his Camino is Bilbao this year. The trail is continually changing from dirt paths to quite roads to cobbled stone surfaces, the different surfaces don’t bother me but the accents and descents do, I am so looking forward to the day when I can climb a steep path and not have to stop multiple times before reaching the top. There is no pilgrim support along our path today so we end up finding a nice shady spot and stop for a bite to eat, take our packs off to rest our bodies and just enjoy some downtime. As we continue our walk the scenery changes from forested area to beautiful clear vistas of the Cantabrian Sea, unfortunately my photos don’t capture the absolute beauty of these views. We finally arrive at our albergue, we are staying at a lovely little albergue called San Martin it is on the outskirts of Orío and has enough room for 20 pilgrims. We check in, get our credential stamped, shower, wash our clothes, wait for our clothes to dry then head down into Orío in search of food and wine. We fill our belly’s then try to get a cab back up to the top of the town to our albergue, this doesn’t work, George has asked the lady serving us and she basically calls him a pussy and tells him No, it’s a 10 minute walk, you walk! So we haul our butts back up the hill and settle in ready for bed. It’s been a big day and sleep is very welcome.Read more