Zarautz to Deba, part 1

Washington Irving coined the term, "Fork in the Road." On the Camino, these options to take a path other than the official or traditional route are called "Variants."

Robert Frost’s famous poem describes the tension at these crossroads: Which path do you take?

Jamie doesn’t mind these junctions. As a rule, she is drawn to scenic routes. When out for a hike, she is known to divert down a trail just to see where it leads, even if it is just a rabbit hole.

Not me.

Once I’m on the interstate, I monitor my miles per hour, the miles to go, and the minivan that I’ve leapfrogged three times. I consolidate gas fill-ups, potty breaks, and meal purchases into one 15-minute or under pit stop per seven hours of drive time.

Jamie points longingly to the sign for the scenic highway, and I answer, "Not this trip. We have to get to Portland," even though we aren’t on a tight schedule. She points to the Multnomah Falls exit, and I tell her, "We’ve hiked that before."

Bonnie and I decided we would try something different on this Camino. If the Way gave us an option, we would take a hard right. On the Norte, this means staying close to the coast even though the distance and difficulty may increase exponentially. Our hope was that the views would too.

Today, we took two of these variants on the way to Deba from Zarautz. It cost us more time, more effort, and more kilometers. It cost us the chance for a *cafe con leche* break in Itziar as well as all of the Camino friends we expected to travel with today. We didn’t see any other pilgrims on these two routes (but there were certainly a lot of locals).

My photos don’t do justice to what we saw and experienced. There were times I was dancing with my poles. At one point Bonnie literally yelled out loud to me, "Dad, this is why we came!" And both kept uttering, “Wow!”, “Would you look at that?!” and "Jesus Christ!" Figuring he was responsible for all this.

Our path less traveled took us above the geological formations called Flysch along the coast. They are alternating layers of hard and soft sedimentary rock, jutting out of the ground, and making you believe this world we live in is worth exploring, treasuring, and protecting.

It made me rethink my position on scenic routes and diversions. It made me value walking and slowing down. It made me think I should let Jamie take the wheel more often.

Today left me pleasantly exhausted and positively fulfilled.

It made all the difference.Leggi altro