Hi everyone!
I did a lot of reading on this forum before me and my girlfriend decided to walk The Camino Del Norte. I have decided to write this post, since I myself found so much useful information posted and commented by other people. It is important to emphasize that this post is a mixture of subjective feelings, and actual objective observations.
This post is about what me and my girlfriend experienced as a very unpleasant “bed race”. We started from Irún on the 31th of July. We wanted to finish in Santander at the 13th of August, then do the rest some other time. Our plan before leaving was to primarily sleep at the donations-based albergues. The idea was to get the authentic pilgrim experience, but also, since we’re both students, save money.
What we soon learned is that there is not nearly enough beds at the donation-based albergues compared to how many pilgrims actually walking. It does not help that many of the pilgrims walking in the same period as us are also students keen on spending as little a possible. In my opinion, this is the main reason for the “bed race “
I will give you guys a short summary of our day to day experience of this “bed race.”
But before I begin I also feel that I need to provide some contextual information. Both me and my girlfriend are in our mid-twenties. Our backpacks that we carried were light and thoughtfully packed. I carried a 30l, my girlfriend a 40l.
We are both in good shape physically, and we are both Norwegians. The latter means that we are used to walking far in challenging terrain, and we didn’t find the Del Norte particularly hard. Even the infamous Deba - Markina stage was not that big of a deal. I’m writing this just to make clear that we are not ordinary scrubs when it comes to walking and hiking. So our issue wasn’t the walking itself, or not being able to finish the different stages in a reasonable amount of time. Our issue, as I have already mentioned, was the getting a bed.
Day 1 - Irùn. We arrived before the albergue opened. We were 4 and 5 in the line. 60 beds. Was full before 20:30. The volunteers working there had to turn people down.
Day 2 - San Sebastián. We soon discovered that San Sebastián didn’t have a albergue. Strange. We acted quickly, and booked two beds at a hostel. 33€ per person. Pricey, but understandable, since the city was full of tourists.
Day 3 - Zarautz. We kept a good pace, and walked past a lot of other pilgrims. We spent a lot of time sitting on a bench in Zarautz, treating a blister, and discussing if we should walk onwards to Getaria. A lot of the pilgrims that we previously overtook, now came rushing past us. It was only 12:30 in afternoon. We strolled causally to the albergue and meet some of the volunteers working there sitting in the yard. We were number 39 and 40. 54 beds in total. People arriving after 14:00 did not get a bed, and had to try their luck elsewhere. Me and my girlfriend started to get concerned. Is this the case at every albergue?
Day 4 - We booked a cheap accommodation at Ibiri Quarter in the hills after Deba, because we were slowly realizing that we were now competing for beds with the other pilgrims that we met at the albergues. A pleasant day of walking, no rush, so we were able to walk the Ruta Del Flycsh. That would not been a option if we had not booked a place to sleep that day.
Day 5 - Gernika. Again we “wasted” a lot of time strolling through Gernika instead of heading straight to the Albergue. We could almost have been 1 - 2 in the line. Ended up a 13 - 14. Other pilgrims coming down to Gernika seemed stressed. We meet two pilgrims that ran the last 2km with several blisters, just to get a bed. They were 37 and 38 in the line. The Albergue had 40 beds. We also spotted two people arriving to the albergue by car. They had hitchhiked just to try and reach the albergue in time to get a bed. Our concern was growing. Other pilgrims told us it would only get worse as we went along. This is not what we had imagined. It wasn’t fun seeing the disappointing look on the faces of other pilgrims that had to find somewhere else to sleep. A lot of them had really fought their way over that mountain/hill. In my opinion, they deserved a bed just as much as everyone else there. Brutal.
Day 6 - Bus to Bilbao. Someone accused us of cheating when we told them during breakfast. Is that the Camino spirit? We did not go to a donation-based albergue in Bilbao, because we didn’t want to occupy beds for people that actually walked to the albergue.
Day 7 - Castro Urdiales. We walked almost 43km that day. Both our pace and spirit was high as we approached La Pobeña. Our breaking point came on the beach, 600m away from the albergue. As we were walking on the beach at around 12:30, discussing if to rent a surfboard or not, a man about my age, with a backpack came running past us. Curious of why he was running, I decided to run after him. Since I found the entire situation a bit amusing, I decided to slowly creep up behind him. He spotted me just as I was about to poke him on the back. He let out a loud yell, and started sprinting. I sprinted after him, and then alongside him. He looked absolutely exhausted and stressed out of his mind. I couldn’t stop myself from laughing from the absurdity of the entire situation. I had to jam my shoulder into his, like in a soccer match, since we now were running on a narrow bridge. “Why are you running?” I asked. “The albergue, it is almost full” he yelled back. He started another desperate sprint. I decided to stop. I am not doing a foot race on the Camino. It turned out that some of his friends had arrived earlier than him, and had called him on his phone, telling him to hurry up. When he saw us on the far end of the beach, he decided to run like a maniac. The albergue had 38 beds. He got the last one. Brutal. We pressed on to Tu Camino Hostel. Full. The host helped us with a booking in Castro Urdiales, but we had to be there before 17:00. Not a pleasant day.
So there you have it. We went to Arenillas. There we decided to stop doing the Camino. We will enjoy the rest of our vacation not stressing and racing for beds. Probably never doing this again, at least not in summer. We really enjoyed walking, the coastal view and Spain in general, but the stress of not knowing if you have a bed or not, ruined the overall experience.
Hope someone will find this post helpful/informative, or at the very least a bit entertaining.
Next summer will be spent in hiking in Norway. There is no “bed race” there.
