Norte: Municipal albergues open for reverse pilgrims?

Dear forum users,

I have 2 weeks time in May and plan to hike part of the Norte. As I did Aviles-Santiago last year, I would like to go further to complete this camino. I read that the first week (Irun-Bilbao) is the most breathtaking part, followed later by the "Cantabrian tarmac hell" and the most unappealing section of the norte (Gijon-Aviles).

Since I won't reach Santiago this time, I thought about walking in reverse from Santander to Irun so I could finish with beautiful landscapes. Since I've learned to hike using GPS, hopefully it won't be too difficult to find the trail. As always, I plan a mix of different accommodations.

My questions:

Has anyone walked in reverse on the first half of the Norte recently? How was this experience? Have your motives often been questioned?

Will I be denied a place to sleep in donativos because I'm not going to Santiago and neither coming from Santiago, so I might not be considered a proper pilgrim? In this 8 years old thread, the answer was "usually not, but it can happen occasionally".

When I did the latter part of the Santiago in May last year, I heard from fellow pilgrims that most of the first half didn't require booking in advance, but there was a serious acommodation bottleneck at Deba and Markina-Xemein. Has anyone just walked by there and experienced problems? What was your solution?

I am grateful for your information. Thanks in advance!

I did Fisterra-Muxia-Santiago last year after the latter half of the Norte and ran into several hundred of people, which indeed was a little bit tiring. But I was fascinated with the whole experience. Of course, there is little or none socializing at all as you meet each person only once.