Camino Norte, day 4 San Sebastion to Orio

We left San Sebastian early, and had the beach all to ourselves. They had groomers out raking the sand and picking up debris, so it would be all smooth for the beach goers, although this was the tail end of the season.

At the end of the beach we headed uphill on a deserted paved road, and got a view of the rocky coast, and walked among farms and villas with an ocean view.

The trail turned inland, and we met a pleasant S. Korean fellow, and his girlfriend showed up at a rest break. He is an actor in S. Korea, possibly the next Clint Eastwood of the country.

We were greeted by an aloof goat, who was not impressed by pilgrims, as we got closer to Oreo.

We walked a few km on a Roman road, which was very difficult footing. It was probably smooth and useful when the Romans made it, but 2000 years of erosion had left a bunch of round shouldered boulders. The Romans would have rebuilt it long ago, but its been ok for pilgrims for 1000 years.

We finally left the wreck of a Roman road, and walked a few km on farm roads, to our hotel 0.9 km outside of Orio, the Hotel Txanka Erreka.

This day proved to be a 15.9 km day, or 10 miles. We didn’t have breakfast, a big mistake, and no lunch but granola bars and crackers, big mistake. And we were really low on water for much of the trip. We made up for it by having a nice dinner, spaghetti for Laura I think. We stayed at a casa rural, or country house. These are often far from cafes and bars, so they provide food, which our place did. We also had breakfast there the next morning, and it was good.

Started 8:30, arrived at 2:15, with 2 food stops
Frig, twin beds, wifi, nice shower but hard to get hot water
€30 dinner
1/3 time w ocean views
1/2 road 1/2 trail
No water on trail, no cafe, no bar,
€167 dinner and breakfast and room
25% on highway