Goikoelexea

We wake up this morning late for breakfast it is 6:50am and we were scheduled to be at breakfast at 6:30am., which means we are interrupting the next lot of pilgrims, who were booked in for 7am, we all make it work though and crowd around the table, the food is beautiful and in abundance, we finish breakfast, finish packing and head off, we are on the road at 8am. This albergue has been super busy it has 19 beds in total, then a couple of tents set up to accommodate the overflow in the front yard, and also has plenty of room to set up your own tent if you are toting one. It was a great place to stay and the vibe is fabulous, lots of Spanish pilgrims staying at this albergue and they are always so social and fun. We say our goodbyes and so starts our walk for today. First up we have a down hill, after a little while it evens out, we have our fingers and toes crossed that it will stay on level ground but it doesn’t last long before the up, up, up begins and we all know what that means. There is no pilgrim support along the Camino until we get to Larrabetzu, but fortunately for us we cross paths with a trail angel who has a sign at the side of their house letting us know it’s ok to fill up our water, George partakes and we carry on. We walk under a canopy of trees which shade us from the direct heat of the sun, it must be 10 degrees cooler in here, it makes for very pleasant walking conditions.
Side note: During our walk through Basque Country it is quite clear that there is political unrest here and they are very quick to tell you that they are not part of Spain or any other neighbouring country.
The Basque Country is absolutely beautiful both here on the Camino del Norte and the Camino Frances, it’s one of my most favourite Camino regions. We get to the outskirts of Larrabetzu before lunch time and it seems to be a very friendly and inviting town, also a very active town with lots of people going about their day. We find a bar and decide to eat and have a drink here, we have booked accommodation and didn’t realise that it was out of town, so after our lunch and a snack haul from the supermarket we map our way to our accommodation, it is 3 km along a quite country road with a nice steep climb at the very end, it is boiling with no shade and we arrive hot, sweating and tired. Lola and her mum are looking after us though, we have lovely rooms and the rest of the house we are told to treat as our own, we enjoy the lilo’s out in the backyard, sunning ourselves like lizards. Later we head inside and sit in the lounge room chatting and enjoying a bottle of wine we bought in Larrabetzu. I then go for an afternoon nap - first one this trip and it’s lovely. Lisa wakes me up just before dinner at 8pm, we are eating at the B&B and are served a beautiful fresh salad with lettuce, tomato, white asparagus, corn, olives, onion, tuna, jalapeños and dressing, followed by crumbed steak and hot chips, we decline the coffee. George goes to bed while Lisa and I sit up chatting, it is just past midnight when we decide to call it a night.Read more