Day 7 – Gernika to Lezama

We started today trying to remedy some of yesterday’s mistakes – a much more substantial breakfast and an earlier start (8:10am – it is Spain!). Can’t say I noticed much difference in the weight of the backpack after last night’s clean out but I felt alright considering how bad I felt yesterday afternoon! The guide book described the first part of the walk “a pleasant 4.6km walk along wooded tracks” but as usual, after a couple of kms to get out of town, we headed steeply up! Today’s peak was around 350m but the tracks were much better and easier than the previous days – lots of minor country roads or firm tracks – so we made very good time. We were determined to have breaks every 2hrs and we did, which kept us much fresher.
We ran into an Irish bloke who had done the Camino Frances a couple of times – he reckoned it was a walk in the park compared to the Norte – it’s nice to know we aren’t the only ones finding it tough…
Managed to find a tavern at Larrabetzu for lunch and got into our accommodation at Lezama (an otherwise nice country hotel directly under the Bilbao airport flight path!) by 4pm. The last attach was only short but in full afternoon sun so we were happy crash out! 23km today/140km in total.