Day 10: Santoña to Santander

38km (271.3 km)
Thursday 15 June 2017

A snore free night meant we were up and out earlier than usual today, having had an uninterrupted sleep. The guide book detailed the beginning stage of this walk as quite precipitous and that an easier way could be made by continuing along the road instead of descending steeply to a vast beach. I had of course read this the night before and was already fretting about the steep descent but as I was walking in a group with an average age well over 60 I thought I’d be OK, when I saw Febrezio (age 80) climbing over rocks and dangling from trees I vowed to become less wimpy in my twilight years. Walking along the beach was a great start to the day and good for the mood because as the day progressed it became more and more road walking. We were going to stop after 23km at Guimes, which had a wonderful Albergue but nothing else, but we decided to continue to Santander, a mere 17km further down the road…as luck would have it it was only another 15km, plus a half hour boat journey (I must admit I quite enjoy the wee boat journeys on this route). I staggered off the boat and limped the 800m to the Albergue, noting once again that Santander would be worth another visit when one didn’t have blisters on the soles of ones feet and was in the mood for sight seeing as opposed to grabbing some food, putting in ear plugs and getting some sleep.
I have decided that I will try and find some new boots (again!) and send some of the contents of my backpack to Santiago, to lighten my load, so I am only expecting to walk around 8km tomorrow, which is fine as I walked two days worth of kilometres today.