Stage 11: Santander - Boo, 29 kms (coastal variant), Black Clouds, Rain, Hail, Sun, 18 Very High Winds!!!

My Oh My!

Today the plan was to walk another variant I’d read about along the coast (where else). This was a long 32 km variant so we walked the first few kilometres of it yesterday linked in with 21 kms of wanderings during our day in Santander. What can I say? It was a very nice walking city. This morning we employed local transport to take us out to the faro (light house). Our driver couldn’t believe that we wanted him to drop us there in the howling wind with very threatening skies. Frankly, we weren’t too sure that we wanted to be left there either! We huddled in the lee of the faro and ate our breakfast and then set off in search of the trail. Today without an app on my phone where I’d downloaded the route, this walk would have been pretty much impossible. 

It had poured all night and yes there was mud as we started. Annemarie said something to me about maybe this wasn’t such a good idea, but the roaring wind tore her words away and I said that we should just give it a try. So we did. Old pros with mud we managed to dance our way through it and up the first headland.

Frankly, when I saw these first cliffs I knew there’d be no going back or giving up today. I was totally engaged. Actually after a while the mud situation improved substantially and we just had to be aware of pooled mud.

The sky was pretty ugly this morning and it wasn’t long before the unforcasted rain began to fall. We stopped and pulled on all our wet gear which also served the dual purpose of cutting a very cold wind that was blowing directly into our faces all day. I pulled on my toque for good measure as well. It was a cold wind to start the day.



There were some very cool crevasses to cross today. A weaked seam in the rock. Some of them like this one were quite long.



While checking out another crevasse I noticed a beautiful rainbow forming. I knew then that like on the Camino Dos Faros that this was the sign of something special. 

Then it doubled.

We knew this meant even more rain, and it did, complete with hail. But we could see some distant breaks in the clouds, so we kept the faith that things would turn in our favour. The wind continued to howl, but this was all the better for the waves. I must say there were times on the headlands that it was pretty difficult to stay upright.

We found an odd British Empire styled bar, whatever that means, and had our coffee, tea thing then decided on an early lunch. We’d brought a lunch, but it was warm and comfortable inside so we had a Spanish clubhouse sandwich complete with white asparagus, a fried egg and a red pepper. I did say this was the Spanish version. And very good too! 



After a moment with a big nasty dog, and a better moment with four lovely setters, the sun made its first appearance. And with it the way just got better and better.

This coastline just continues to deliver. Something very special when you can walk along these places. We have stunning coastlines at home in British Columbia, but large parts of it are pretty inaccessible for walking like this.

We finally decided that it was getting late and the sky was darkening again, so we headed inland along back roads to find Boo and our albergue for tonight. 

There is supposed to be a very good communal meal here tonight, one of the reasons we wanted to stay here. Just 14 kms from Santander on the main Camino route, but the place is full. I was surprised, and fortunately we reserved a couple of beds knowing we were going to be walking the headlands for hours today. In fact, with stops, slow going and everything else it was 8 hours.

Buen Camino!