Norte Day 4 – Zarautz to Deba

What happened to the forecast? Yesterday the forecast for today was to be cloudy, instead the day started off with a light rain. So we put on the rain poncho’s and hit the road.

We enjoyed an amazing walk out of town along the coastline. The road from Zarautz to Getaria is amazing. Its a road built at the waters edge, an added plus is that in addition to the road there is an promenade that runs the full 4.5 KM to Getaria. Stunning views even on a cloudy, misty rainy day.

Today was a day of extremes. Pavement contrasted with short sets of muddy trails. Quiet pastoral scenes, contrasted with busy highways and noise. We got both ends today. We thought yesterday was bad for mud, today was much worse. Ankle deep in many places. However, we survived both the roadways and the mud.

We had planned to take an alternate route to Deba which was to be along the coastline. We started off on the route but somehow got redirected back to the main Camino. This added another 3-5 KM to our journey.

We decended into Deba, which is a older city that has some unusual outdoor elevators to help you decend from the steep hillside. Parts of Deba appear to be rough and abandoned despite having a great beach… many of the beach front buidings are abandoned or left to rot. It appears most of the residents live inland a bit near the center of town in large apartment buildings, and are leaving the beach area for surfers and grafiti artists. Odd as it appears to have had some charm in years past. A bit strange to see such contrast from a city such as San Sebastion. But since today was about contrasts, it seems to fit the theme for the day.

We have been averaging 19+ miles per day the last few days. Needless to say we are quite tired, yet thrilled to be on on this journey together….

A few more pics today than yesterday. I can only imagine how much better they would look on a sunny day.