Camino del Norte 9 – Joyous

Thirty fantastic kilometers from Laredo to Guemes.

The first 4km today was along the Laredo broadwalk beside the beach. We saw more peregrinos today than at any other point in our walk as we all moved down the beach in the same direction. Eventually we ran out of beach and 40 of us clumped on a sandy spit and waited for the peregrino ferry. The ferry nosed up to the sand, took us on board and popped over to the other side of the river, saving us all miles of walking – and adding a cool little experience.

On the other side of the water we stopped for coffee and juice and then set off along yet another beach. After passing the forbidding walls of a Napoleónico-era prison that’s still in use today, we set off up and around a headland with expansive views of the beaches, coast, and wetlands. A little tough walking completely paid off with the amazing views.

On the other side we found yet another enormous flat beach. So our next kilometers were on firm sand, which is walkers heaven. The mist we’d noticed from the headland, thickened as we walked. By the time we reached the end of the beach we could barely see 50m – it was quite otherworldly and beautiful with rocks looming out of the mist.

Then there was another coffee stop. This was developing into the perfect Camino day.

Soon after, we turned inland and exchanged beaches for country roads. Green fields surrounded us. The farmers were out in force doing farmer-things in their fields and accompanied by flocks of raptors swooping and diving just over our heads – presumably looking for mice on the run from the tractors.

The day progressed with some more coffee and lunch stops and more lovely little roads through the countryside. We could hardly have asked for more. Even the promised thunderstorms held off and all we got were a few drops of cooling rain.

A small navigation error, mine, took us an extra 2km out of our way at the end. But the day had been so pleasant that even that was no real problem (at least that’s my story). We walked into Guemes just after 3 pm. And to add a cherry on top of what has been an amazing day, our hotel was open in spite of having told us they wouldn’t be there until 5 pm. Totally brilliant day.