Spain has 2 directions... up... and down...

Got off to a bit of a slow start today... Yesterday upon entering the Klein Hostel I put all of my clothing in the washing machine they provided, after removing 2 articles and putting them in a basket, not realizing that there was more clothing in the recesses of the machine... As soon as I hit start the gentleman who let me in came running to the laundry room, asking where the rest of his laundry was, and that's when i looked into the machine and saw white items that I don't own! It only got worse, as after an hour and 20 minutes I moved my clothes to the dryer and then went for dinner. When I came back the door was locked, and remained so until the cleaning staff arrived today at 1015am!

Surf at 8am... the sea looks angry!

Almost makes me want get up in the morning forever!

Surfs up, surfing dudes!

As it turns out, this was a blessing in disguise, as there were clothes of two other pilgrims also trapped in the laundry room. Since we were all waiting for our imprisoned clothing to be released, we all left the albergue at the same time and walked together the entire route. Anya, from Switzerland, and Lorrine, from France, would be my travel mates for the day.

Our first stop was for coffee and a pintxos, building up the courage to foray out into the rain that would accompany us off and on for most of rhe day...

Where are we again?

Leaving Zarautz...

Can't get enough of the sea!

The harbour at Getaria...

In the church at Getaria...

Steep and slippery...

Taking a minute to catch our breath...

Pretty, but still steeply uphill ..

If you look far off in the distance you'll see close to where we will eventually end our day...

Don't ever recall seeing a Holly tree before...

Descending towards the ocean, for what I hope will be a nice coastal walk..

The town of Zumaia...

The road leading up to the church...

This is the church where I received a stamp for my credentials, and also lost my Poncho, after wearing it for the first time today!

The first two times I slipped today on city streets I was fine... the third time on wet rocks going uphill, not so lucky... and somewhere in the Spanish mountains, there is a bloody imprint of my knee in a sea of mud, from when I fell for the FOURTH time!

Game of Thrones used footage from some of these rocks for various scenes in the series..

The views for the next couple hours are some of the best I've seen yet...

Just stunning!

Emerald fields...

We march on...

More stunning landscape...

Sheep being sheep...

Everywhere you turn, another Vista more beautiful than the last appears...

This was the last big hill before the descent into Debas, and it almost killed me ..

The path to get up here was all wet dirt/mud, and there was only very shallow recesses to try and get a foothold...

Walking through a herd of cows...

While I thought that this cloudburst would rain on our parade, it did not... The massive rainstorm coming from the other side of Deba, however, soaked us to the core...

The final descent into Deba...

After eight and a half hours of walking up and down mountains in the rain, we were very much looking forward to arriving at the public albergue, which housed 56 beds. Imagine our surprise when we arrived to find a sign on the door indicating that they were full! Pouring rain and fully exhausted, we decided the best option was to rent a three bed hotel a half km away. We made our way there, showering quickly and grabbing a bite to eat (shared tomato and tuna salad to start, then steak milanesa with fried egg and French fries for main course, and finishing with a local sheep cheese- sorry no pics, too tired!), and then fell into bed exhausted...

Shoutout to Anya and Lorinne... they were troopers the whole way, dealing with their own health issues... we laughed all day and took turns encouraging each other to not give up... not sure I could have done this day on my own, as it was far harder than the first day...

Kms walked today... 25

TOTAL DISTANCE WALKED SO FAR- 90KMS