Day 6 to Güemes

9 September 2023 Day 6 was a 45 km day due to some missed turns that resulted in shorter riding, but on highways

Started pretty much as hoped a little after eight a.m. - the weather was fair, and I left Castro with a full stomach due to an epic breakfast that grew by the minute as I was eating they brought out more and more food. I ended with both a veggie and a normal Spanish tortilla And probably ate easily 1200 calories

Today is a mixture of both classical narrow trails through the countryside a fair amount of single track, some of which I had to walk the mountain bike for safety reasons and then probably about 50% on blacktop, roads and highways.

For better or worse, the walking pilgrims also had their share of asphalt and road walking regardless of the multiple alternate routes today included for all of us to choose from.

As you can see some challenging ups and downs, and some of the really big ups, in which either pushed my bike or was in first gear the whole way -these are not insignificant five minute climbs.

Puerto de Castro Urdiales at sunrise offering a beautiful departure out of town. It was bustling with people last night but at 8:30 a.m. only a few out for a stroll on the paseo

I just love the wall murals depicting daily life of days gone by - beautifully crafted

Fruit trees abound throughout Spain most on private property but many gone rogue on abandoned land

After winding my way out of town on the streets on and off the official trail, I eventually found myself on a more representative and beautiful pastoral trail and started encountering more walkers. Traffic however, was light. I should have really slowed down to enjoy these sections more. Why do I rush?

The plot thickens the paved 6 foot wide trail abruptly ended at a gate (close after entering to keep livestock on their turf) which I opened and had to walk my bike up through this mess -arguably difficult to even walk on, but it only went on for about 300m and opened onto a cliffside walking trail amidst lush green fields once again.

Some of the trail like this is rideable on a mountain bike, but definitely not on a gravel bike or road bike. When it did get too bumpy, with rocky areas I chose to simply walk the bike for a 100m or so and enjoy the scenery. If I weren’t so concerned about the kilometers there are many such idyllic spots for a picnic.

This section was quite rideable for about a kilometer, and when I did come across walkers, I simply rolled off into the field around them to not affect their progress. Curiously this section did not appear to be heavily travelled.

At the end of the beautiful and very long Laredo beach, you come to the bay which you can either ride around (2 plus hours) or jump on a boat to cross over to the other side, which to me was a no-brainer for four euros.

My barco ticket - one way - not viceversa route

Crossing over to the other side to the small town of Santona. I had to push my bike up the narrow gangplank which was a little tricky

Beautiful Santona !

On today’s stage, as is the case many times on most Camino rutas, there are alternate routes that one can take based on scenery, physical exertion, level of convenience, distance, or critical (safety) requirement in my case, such as being a bicigrino on a bike. Much of the Camino is simply not passable by a bike due to inclines, rocks, mud, turns you name it.

All in all, this was a very good day of cycling maybe the best yet from a panorama standpoint

And finally to my lodging in Guemes. I was ‘beat’ and I beat the rain which usually shows up late afternoon

Highlight of the day:

Interesting memory phenomenon of my last camino. As the kilometers dragged by on the paved roads and highways with all the motor traffic, I often had very vivid hi-resolution memory images of specific times, and places on my last Camino pop into my head as if it occurred just two weeks ago! This was odd and very cool phenomenon. It is fascinating how memories are stored with such detail, randomly appear, but are often difficult to recall at will. I wonder how the neurochemistry of the triggers of individual specific memory access works?

“The Christian life is a pilgrimage from earth to heaven, and our task is to take as many as possible with us as we make this journey.”

~ Warren W. Wiersbe