Camino del Norte Day 6 – Deba to Markina-Xemein

Everyone had been warning me that today is hard. Gronze gave it a 4 out of 5 on the difficulty level, but I found yesterday worse.

Despite being above the train station my sleep wasn’t disturbed. In fact as soon as my head hit the pillow, the next time I opened my eyes it was 0600h.

I packed up but I seemed to have lost a pair of underpants – the pair that escaped the wash! I asked the pilgrim in the bottom bunk if had packed it by mistake, but he hadn’t. Someone somewhere now has a stinky pilgrim pants in their bag – there was definitely nothing left next to my bunk when I left.

I had been warned that today there would be no stops between Deba and Markina. I fuelled up at a cafe and bought a handful of fruit before leaving.

It was a steep incline, a common theme for the Norte. The route was mostly forest tracks in an inland direction. Before long I was surrounded by mountains and trees. Beautiful landscape.

It wound through the peaks before descending to a “forgotten valley”, a small hamlet of about 5 houses with grazing cattle within a bowl of mountains, it resembled more of the shire than Spain. I was stunned with the beauty and tranquility of the place.

The route followed a single track road up, and up, and up, a long drawn out incline before levelling out, with views out across the mountain range.

I had to take a moment and admire the scenery. The path is pretty much level from this point until the brutal decline into Markina. It was very muddy and wet. I was glad for once to reach the tarmac of the road going into the town.

It goes past a church that had been built around a rock formation, I don’t know the significance of this unexpected find, but it was a surprise. From there it follows the river into the centre of town. I had a bite to eat and a drink with a pilgrim who had the bottom bunk in Deba – Alex from Berlin.

One kilometre walk took me to the albergue, a brilliant spot. We all had the communal meal, good food and wine with shared stories between pilgrims. A great ending to the day – I also found my missing underwear at the bottom of my rucksack.