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🇪🇸 Routes in Spain
🇪🇸 Camino del NORTE (from Irún)
Del Norte Irun to Bilbao Observations September 2022
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[QUOTE="Ed G., post: 1072445, member: 72415"] Great stuff DaveJ, we just did the same route on Sept. 21 - 27, and totally agree with your observations in areas where we had the same experience. I'll just highlight a few of them, and maybe add a bit. In my nearly worthless opinion, overall Norte is harder hiking, especially the first seven days anyway, but overall, the views are much better than Frances. We did the Purgatorio option (I just kept calling the "harder route" all week!) and it was well worth the significant added effort (and it is significant added effort!), but the views are just incredible. The one part of Norte I did not enjoy as much, which DaveJ highlighted, was the lack of small towns/villages during each stage, when compared to Frances. This definitely requires some forethought the night before with regard to snacks. I always enjoyed my 5km - 8km first village on Frances for coffee and tortilla, and you can NOT (NEVER) count on that on Norte. It's not a problem, just bring snacks, but definitely consider it. But I definitely walk, in part, for my relaxing and tasty 10am coffee/tortilla and 2pm plaza lunch with other pilgrims, so it was personally impactful :) My wife doesn't seem to eat, ever, so a little fruit purchase the night before did the trick. We also adjusted start times each day a bit so we'd be likely to hit the few towns in between end points at around 1:30pm-2pm, which helped to be somewhere where we could eat the typical pilgrim menu at a restaurant. We also planned ahead with accommodations, and it made each day a bit more enjoyable, as we never had to worry about getting to an albergue early enough to ensure we secured a bed. I realize this is a blessing that not all have, we are fortunate to have a few extra Euros that is sometimes required to ensure a bed at a place that takes reservations. But our experience was that Norte is still not the easiest place to secure a bed. Obviously two years of COVID, holy year extension, etc., have increased the number of pilgrims and it seemed more advanced planning was needed to ensure a day of hiking at our own speed. DaveJ mentioend the ocean walk alternate from Zarautz to Getaria. Can't recommend that enough! My second favorite section only to the Purgatorio alternate in day one from Irun. But we did it as add on to the stage and stayed the night in Getaria, which was just an awesome little town. Definitely agreed on Deba as well, tough spot to get a bed. We ended up securing a reservation just before Deba, at Perlakua Saka. Which was a great spot, with an interesting history having nothing to do with the Camino. Most notably, there's a back trail from Perlakua Saka that takes you straight down to Deba, so while you deviate a bit from the Camino to get to hotel, you don't have to backtrack. Just ask the host, they'll explain the way. Also highly recommend Intxauspe Iandextxea just north of Markina, if it's in your budget. Great hosts. I appreciate that I've included some info that may require additional expenses and thus may not be in the interest of all, but we had a tremendous week and wanted to share it and magnify some of DaveJ's very useful intel. The Camino never fails, we were on the train from Bilbao to Madrid planning our next trip and already missing all that it offers. Buen Camino! [/QUOTE]
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