Walking across Europe - 2013: Camino Norte - October 6, 2025 Day 2 Muros de Nalon to Santa Marina

Daily Information

Distance: 28.1 Kms

Elevation G/L meters: 891:(806)

Basically exhausted! Cool in the morning 10C…nice sunshine all day…perfect walking day…shorts all the way! However what was to be a 24km day turned out to be 28.1kms

Factoring elevation gains/losses it “feels like”’a 35,7km day! The elevation profile of the day shows the constant roller coaster…it’s a little bit wearing!

Both Paulo and I are of course a “tad” sore …my shoulders are complaining bitterly…Paulo mostly in legs. Ok everything hurts somewhat. However no blisters or anything out of the ordinary so far given the distances and terrain covered…pleased about that! 😊

The walk to Soto de Luina (19kms) was really pleasant…mix of enjoyable forest walking, other nice paths…ocean views…the kind of walking that makes time fly.

How can it get better than this?

Paulo saw a couple of surfers out there!

Incredible bridges

After Soto de Luina…hmmm rocky ups/downs…a few tricky creek crossings…fair amount of busy road walking etc. This really saps the energy levels and walking essentially becomes a mental exercise…one just has to keep driving forward. A few pictures reflect the mood. 😉

Damn how did we miss the sign!

Not quite sure what the message is?

Seen better days!

A very long dark tunnel under the highway!

Finally we arrived at our accommodation for the night 😊

Ok other interesting stuff happened 😊 Back to last night Andrew joined us for supper and we had a lively enjoyable conversation. Andrew lives maybe a couple of kms away from us in Toronto having moved there from Australia about 35 years ago. He walked the Camino Frances prior to the current Camino Norte so some nice “tall tale” common ground!

The tortilla chips were a shared item

Prior to supper was checkin time and…well…that was worth a good laugh! As soon as we enter a room Paulo will separate the twin beds if they are in a King size configuration. This may involve rearranging bed side tables etc.

Last night for the first time ever the King size configuration had a single sheet and blanket. So Paulo promptly removes the bed sheet and blanket from what is to be my bed. I am now left with a bright red rubber sheet…these are on Camino beds to protect against bed bugs.

I naturally informed Paulo that maybe I would be more comfortable not sleeping on rubber and having a blanket would be a nice touch. Paulo agrees and off he goes to reception…returning a few minutes later…”Oh my Guy I was told that there are no spare bed sheets…the assumption was that we could just keep respectfully to our individual sides of the bed”. WHAT!!!

I have paid good Euros here…about to sleep on rubber…while Paulo luxuriates in king size everything! Knock on the door “we found a blanket”. I dig in my bag and pull out a sleep liner which I brought along for this EXACT possible situation…and all is well 😊

The next morning do you think I could get that blasted sheet back into the micro bag provided? Not a chance…politely asked for assistance…apparently in these situations one must fill in corners first and work like h*ll to cram in said article. No thank you…my misfit gene set does not allow this.

A very positive final update on our “fitting in” on the pilgrim walker side. Pilgrim introductions being made left, right and center!

Andre and Martha from Holland - Irun start

Eddie and Stephanie from Australia - Irun start

Victoria from Lithuania - San Sebastián start

Elliot & 2 friends from United States - Irun start

Sarah Taiwan - Irun start

You must remember that Irun/San Sebastian are both well over 600 kms away! These folks have been in a major battle…we have had a minor skirmish starting in Aviles. Basically we don’t fit in…we are/should be outcasts.

However we are slowly being accepted…moving from

total outsiders to “hey you guys have done this before” 😊 I have flashed my credential with the pathetic number of sellos a few times to get a laugh or two and we have taken the initiative to introduce ourselves as best we can.

I even sat through a 20 minute conversation between Paulo

and a pleasant Spanish couple…basically nodding and smiling.

An interesting phenomenon when someone speaking Spanish knows you understand NADA they will speak even more passionately thinking that will help me understand better. Alas no luck.

I think we are a couple of days away from “hey great to see you…how you holding up…Santiago here we come” We will be part of the Camino family…they will have started in Irun and totally forgotten that we started in Aviles 😊

A few other pictures from the day…tomorrow on to Luarca! Bad news in that what was thought to be a 24 km day could be as high as 30kms. The plan setter (me) is on the hot 🥵 seat trying to figure out “what was I thinking?”