After many travel issues, even after arriving in Bilbao (Vueling lost our walking sticks), today was finally the first real day of our Camino.
Let the modern means of transportation go quiet, and make way for the glorious sound of feet stomping on the road, one step after the other.
This is life. This is the Way.
I have to say: when I saw our first yellow arrows on signs and light posts, it hit me right in the feels.
All the tension I had built up over the past few days vanished. I was home. Finally, after 11 years.
It was quite an emotional moment. I suddenly had this instinctive feeling that everything was going to be alright. As long as we kept following the small yellow arrows, everything was going to be OK.
Our walk went fairly smoothly. There were some rougher parts where the path was not well kept, and we had to make our way through thick bushes and low trees. Other than that, however, we were walking just fine.
The road from Bilbao goes through a couple of hills and through the town of Barakaldo. Then it goes towards Portugalete, which was our primary objective.
Depending on how we felt when we got there (around 15-18 Km away from our starting point), we would decide whether or not we wanted to push for another 8-10 Km to the coast.
Eventually, we decided to push.
On the road, we encountered a few pilgrims. Most of them would mind their own business, a few would say “hola” or “bueno Camino”, and only one really wanted to talk to us.
His name was Helmut, a retiree from Lienz (Austria). He could only speak German, so I tried to communicate with him. As with many “returning pilgrims” he clearly had the sickness of the Camino: doing it once and wanting to do it again.
This was his fourth Camino apparently, and he started telling me stories about his wife, his religious beliefs, and his slow pace which only allowed for stages of max. 20 Km every day. I could barely manage to hold on to my inadequate German, but it was a fun exchange. He insisted we take a picture together and write our names in his guide book.
This encounter definitely counted as Laura’s baptism of fire in terms of weird pilgrims met on the way.
I’m quite confident, however, that he won’t be the last.
We arrived at La Arena at around 6 PM and decided to stop only a few minutes short of Pobeña, which was the recommended stop on our guide book.
It was already good enough for us to essentially complete the stage, on our first day. Our legs hurt, our shoes are still taking the shape of our feet, and we still have to get our routines in place. All in all, I count today as a victory.
Furthermore, we managed to find a small room with a balcony that overlooks the ocean. A treat for our first day as pilgrims.
Tomorrow will be much harder than today, even though the stage should be a bit shorter than today.
Our morale and motivation is a lot higher, however, after a good first day on the road.
Let’s hope we can hang onto our bodies, while our minds are strong.
The alarm is set. Tomorrow we keep walking.