Yesterday it went all the way up to 64 degrees and today it was predicted to go to 66, but a blanket of fog kept it below that at the top of Monte Avril. Anyway, this constitutes a heat wave in our experience.

The mud hasn’t been quite so bad the last few days, but the ups and downs of the mountains make this highly strenuous. It’s no wonder that the more southerly, inland route, called the Camino Frances (the route we took in 2015 for our first Camino) overtook this Camino del Norte route in popularity back in the 13th century or so.

Some of the long uphill slogs have been conducive to meditation, but they are succeeded inevitably with steep downhills that require careful attention.

Since we started at Lourdes we have walked about 300 km and almost all of it was either uphill or downhill. For example, in the last 3 days we have had a +2,000 ft up and 2,000 ft down followed by a 3,000 ft up and a 2,700 ft down followed by today’s walk into Bilbao with a 2,500 ft up and 2,400 ft down. Some of the slopes are reasonable but many exceed 10° and there have been frequent 15° and 20°+ slopes. The downhill walking is tough on the thighs and caused Ed to get his first blister since our first Camino in 2015.

It has been enjoyable to see the Basque people up close at walking pace. Their ancient language seems to be flourishing in the modern context, and their economic clout proportionately exceeds their numbers. The little horses (batokas) are adorable and the goats are sure creative (don’t worry, he got his head back through the fence, horns and all, without mishap.)