Coming out of Castro is one of my favorite parts of the Norte, there is a picnic table placed in the woods on the water and I was so happy it was free and available.
The walk continues through Islares which I remembered as two bars in a small inlet that was pretty active the day I walked through, today was totally different. The bar that I thought was in the greatest place on the Norte seemed as if it might be
totally closed, little activity today though the water was still crystal clear in the cove.
Slug eating mushroom...and the kids would ask...
Does that mean a mushroom that eats slugs or a slug that eats mushrooms? The good news is a slug that eats mushrooms:)
Today was a long day and we knew it would be, add to that that we took a higher more beautiful variant to stay off the highway and we were beat. We stopped with about three hours to go where a donkey was. We walked through a sweet town of Liendo with
about an hour and a half to go. The towns people were out, a nice man cut us grapes from his yard and I hopped into a local bar to get a credential stamp as we had plans to sleep in Laredo where the ferry would, in the morning at nine, take us
to Somo. This would be our second of three ferries on the Norte. A small little boat that pulls up to shore and carries maybe less then twenty people for about fifteen minutes. On my last Norte I stayed at a private auberge that was nice but the
kids wanted to sleep out and the weather was nice. Looking at our guidebook we had to just imagine situations as there is no book, to my knowledge, written for those that want to stealth camp. My book mentioned a shelter where the ferry was and
I suggested this not knowing what it looked like. During our donkey break Reichen asked to look through the guidebook as we all knew this was a long day. He mentioned there was an alternative route that skipped the ferry and went around
it instead. I OF course shot that idea down but it was on the radar screen and noted by both of us that it existed. Reichen and Karsh walked ahead today stopping about every hour somewhere where we would all reconnect, this was only in our final
hours and was fine with me today but usually I insist we stay close enough together.
This blog entry is a good week later so what I am about to share shouldn't upset anyone, all is good, but a part of our Camino.
As I walked the last hour of our day I was on a path, clearly marked for the Camino that I did not recognize, a variant but a super pretty one. I remembered highway taking me into Laredo but this was neat up on a hill and I liked it a lot. I was with
everyone but Reichen and Karsh and very surprised they were not stopped somewhere waiting. The sun was going down as you can see from pictures and Laredo was clearly in our sights as it is a nice sized town with lots of lights. Laredo is a great
place to be and from the town there is a large beach stretch that takes you to the ferry that is closed at night but would run in the AM. I remembered a huge walk of steps when I came and thought the boys might be there waiting, unfortunately
the way I came in today didn't involve these steps and brought me in from the beach side vs the back side and highway.
The little ones and I arrived, disoriented as we were near some bars and the outskirts, asked a few people and we were less than three minutes from the auberge I stayed at before. While Laredo is a nice size it is almost a vertex of life that
then expands with a boardwalk to the beach with the stretch to the ferry. Due to this you have to leave the boardwalk to see the beach in most of this walk and you can't see everything well due to dunes etc....
At the vertex I expected to see the boys and didn't.
I had forgotten that the ferry walk was another hour away, all boardwalk along apartments and restaurants but tons of opportunity to walk on the dunes to checkout the beach and not be seen by those that pass. We never said meet at the ferry where
we hope to sleep but we did say," hmmmm, the place where you catch the ferry looks like a great place to savage camp". I knew everyone had heard that and that was a relief as I was pretty confident the boys would know that is where we would head.
The problem I imagined though was when would they make the decision to leave the hub bun of Laredo and start heading that way? Also I had totally forgotten how long the walk was to the ferry it was over an hour preventing any running back and
forth to look for each other between the two spots.
We hung around Laredo a bit looking for them but when we realized we still had an hour to go to the ferry spot to sleep we started walking. I felt the chances were high the boys were there. Some locals called all of the auberges and none had seen
two obvious American pilgrims which was possibly good news. We get to the ferry location and the restaurant I remembered there was closed I assume for the season, my boys were not there. It was very dark behind the restaurant where you catch the
ferry and I saw no shelter it was just sand and obviously my boys were not there. The perfect spot to sleep was the porch of the restaurant, it couldn't be better and I was still optimistic my boys would come in a bit after deciding waiting in
Laredo was not fruitful. The kids have amazing survival skills they had all of their sleeping devices, food and water and while I had no idea where they could possibly be I did with little doubt know they would find a place to sleep if they had
to and do it well. I must admit though I was surprised that scenario would play out before them knowing to come where the ferry takes off. A local asked if they could have caught an earlier ferry and I knew right away not an option and the good
news is the ferry crossing almost puts in a built in barrier where no one can proceed without that step so they would have to go through those steps for the Camino!
Tristan, Bronwyn, Aynsleigh and I set up for our night under shelter on a front porch of the restaurant facing where every pilgrim would pass. Though there are very few pilgrims this season my point is the boys would have to pass this location. Though
we were not visible from the porch while we slept we hung a hammock from the porch so it was a sure beacon if they walked up to us in the middle of the night. A few surfer type vans were near us, maybe camping for free I never knew why. They were
not close enough to communicate with but close enough where I felt protected. I missed the boys terribly as I knew tonight would have had the potential to be a great sleep.
I kept waking up certain the boys would be there and they were not. I could only think they were so exhausted they were sleeping in the five kilometer stretch of beach not visible to me from the boardwalk.
At four am a huge gust of wind came in, I thought a storm was brewing and that is when I really worried but it passed as soon as it started.
At eight AM I said I would stay put till nine and by foot head to Laredo, without pack and thus quickly to see where the boys could possibly be. I was in total shock that by nine they were not at the ferry place as they knew this was our plan. I wasn't
worried about their safety as much as I worried about their comfort.
The little ones were very safe there at the restaurant kicking balls and swinging in the hammock. I knew it would take an hour to get to town and an hour back and told them I would be back without a doubt by noon.
I made a mistake and insisted even if the boys show up ten minutes after I leave do not let anyone leave to then go get lost looking for me. Well the boys would show up ten minutes after I left!!!!!!!!!!
I would spend about an hour getting to Laredo stopping at every beach entry looking for them as the dunes prevented me from seeing the Sandy beach from the walk way. At this point I was in shock they hadn't surfaced ( though they had and I just didn't
know it yet).
I went straight to the tourist office, tourist offices are so on our radars as we hit them in every town I knew the boys would stop there, but they hadn't. The tourist office called the auberge who had not seen them and the police station was a fifteen
second walk from the tourist office so I checked with them, no boys! But they did offer to drive me around. The second I got in their car I felt a tremendous feeling that the boys were with the littles down at the restaurant and asked the police
to take me there. They did Donny driving on the boardwalk. They did hop in and out of the car to check the beach which I had already done.... and there in front of the restaurant were all five of my kids laughing and playing with a ball!!!!!
It ends up they did what I thought they would do but in another town, Colindres. In Liendo with ninety minutes left they took the route I took last time, they kept going back and forth in that town looking for us when they stopped and we didn't appear.
As night fell they realized they needed to head to Loredo and upon doing so looked for us in the vertex area and then asked people where the ferry goes. I suspect they misunderstood the directions more than being misinformed but they were told
" straight, straight, straight". Depending where in the vertex you walk straight from leads you two different ways. They walked straight but ended up in the town , the first town, that takes you on that Camino route that goes around the ferry.
The good news is Reichen realized this but they were way to exhausted to keep walking two hours back to the vertex and then to ferry. In Colindres They camped right there at the tourist office next to the police station ( my instincts were correct,
they did well) and at nine when both opened a super nice police officer drove them to where the ferry comes. They saw the hammock, they saw the kids and since their entry was via road they didn't see me on the boardwalk.
So a fiasco that ended well and made me proud of my boys instincts. We would depart at noon for a stellar walk to one of the best places on the Camino Norte. Had we left fifteen minutes later we would not have made it in time for a decent visit so
thankfully we left at noon, had a gorgeous day ahead of us and Guemes our destination is the safest harbor on the Camino to arrive to and our pack was heading there!
Dog on the blog...
Guarding his sheep...
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