Setting off early again today hoping to get to Zumia near Bilbao in good time , so that Sarah, who is coming over from Brighton today to walk with me for the next week, won’t have to wait too long. The weather leaving Guernika was suitably gray and wet, for a town that recalls such devastation. On my walk out, I came across a mural of the famous Picasso painting, which even rendered in tiles is moving.
After leaving Gernika I walked to Gerekiz where I met with Marissa, Carmen and Emma for breakfast. We walked for four hours through tall pine forests with mainly gentle inclines, but a couple of tricky scrambles on the scree, which were quite a tax on my knee.
Emerging from the forest into the village of Larabetzu also brought us face-to-face with local politics in a way we had not seen until now, the strong evidence of separatist sentiment everywhere, and a very very strong Basque identity. In the village we met up with several of the people we’d met along the Camino so far, and I realised that you do just keep meeting up with the same people again and again. It included the family of four with two girls, aged 8 and 11 who are walking and camping all the way, the French guy from a few days ago also ä pitched up again and we also got to know Daniel the Texan ex-soldier who we had met a few days before a little better. He told us that after a tour of duty in Afghanistan he had decided to leave the military and was now spending a whole year walkin.
Larezema was the next stop , and the point at which I parted company with my lovely new friends from La Gomera and welcomed Sarah for a weeks walking. It’s remarkable how only a week of walking can create such a close sense of friendship, Carmen presented me with one of her Camino earrings, a yellow arrow, to keep me safe and ensure I am going in the right in the right direction for the rest of my Camino, and Emma gave me a beautiful, bright yellow sweatband to help me on my way. Such kindness.
Sarah and I said goodbye to Marissa, Carmen and Emma, and as they turned off to take the train to Bilbao to spend the weekend with relatives, while Sarah and I walked on to Zumia where we had quite a luxurious night in a hotel with plenty of wine and a good catch-up chat, and booked tickets for the Guggenheim in Bilbao.
