As John McEnroe would say: you cannot be serious!

Is this outside Najera?

@Alyssa , yes Alyssa, near the top of the climb about 2 kms after Najera.

So, 582 km straight up puts us in Santiago? Or heaven?

@koilife | Not straight up; 2 km further west (KM post 580) puts you where my bike & I stopped for a 10 min rest and took a picture.

I have to say, sometimes those signs.........were a bit demoralising!

Actually these two posts (582 & 580) were a rarity - the next 10 or 15 KM post I saw all had their "distance to go" markers removed. It was not only bloody annoying; in other cases it was frustrating and it made me think that if you were contacting the emergency services being able to give them an exact locator may have been the difference between life and death. Yes I know about GPS co-ords on a mobile phone - but with language differences the simpler the location instruction the better.