This week is a most significant week in my wee brain. Dad would be 96yo today (22 Sept). The Autumn Equinox occurs tomorrow at 1.04am here in Ireland. We are at celestial balance. A very significant “Balance” for nature, and more importantly, our mind, body and soul. These YouTube clips will explain so much better than I could elaborate. So as we pass through this annual balancing of the light, I think it appropriate that we also take time to really think about getting some “Balance” into our lives. If it is something you practice than I applaud you, If it is not, then I can only ask you to consider to Prioritise Balance.
As always, I have checked Hyperlinks so go ahead and wonder around this blog.
The Crosshaven walk returns to my legs this week for the winter season and the robins start screeching (WTF you doing in my patch 🐦⬛) as we navigate along this lovely railway walk. I’ll also get off the backside and publish a ‘Blog’ this week as the closing in of the dark evenings elbows some room at the desk.
Total Eclipse of the Heart
August 12 2026 and Ireland experienced a near total eclipse of the Sun. And as coincidence and luck would have it the next total Solar Eclipse will be 23 September (2090, a mere 64 years from tomorrow). It occurred around tea time here in Ireland and although cloudy around many parts of the country significant numbers glimpsed the eclipse as it proceeded. I joined the Eclipse party in Fountainstown and huge numbers experienced an evening swim as the eclipse reached its near totality. (96%). I shared my Solar Viewers with as many as I could over the two hours as many were not able to get their hands on them in the run-up to the event. A fantastic, enjoyable event even if the clouds did try hard to spoil the party.
Sadly, Bonnie Tyler had passed a few weeks earlier on July 8th. Her enormous hit “Total Eclipse of the Heart” was belted out everywhere during our celestial event.
Camino Norte (Bilboa-Santander). The pilgrims you meet.
This adventure rolled around very fast and although I had done a good deal of conditioning throughout the winter in the form of walking and winter swimming, I was still fairly unsure of myself. I think ‘Jitters’ are part and parcel of any change, challenge or adventure. Notwithstanding, I set of on Saturday May 10th. Aer Lingus, Cork to Bilboa. Mind you, in years gone by, when Munster Rugby was a force to be reckoned with, I would have been expecting to be landing in Bilboa to shout on Munster in the Investec Champions Cup Final set for Saturday 23 May 2026, in the vibrant Spanish city of Bilbao, located in Bizkaia (province of Biscay) in the Basque Country. But alas Munster are nowhere near their past glories and it is Leinster facing Bordeaux one week after I arrived in Bilboa for my short walk. Ah, well, maybe sometime into the, not-so-distant-future, we will be heading off to a final instead of a Camino stage.
Instead, it was off to Bilboa Cathedral to start my short first day’s walk. Bilboa to Portugalete / Santurtzi, Day 2: Santurtzi to Castro Urdiales, Day3. Castro Urdiales to Laredo, Day 4. Laredo to Noja, Day 5. Onto Santander and Day 6. Travel back to Bilboa and Cork.
Highlights:
As with all Camino’s, it is the people that you meet that will always stay with you. The Camino Norte is much quieter than the Camino Frances and seeing that I started very early in May I was not surprised. I’m not an Albergue person but my ‘single room’ accommodation was in Pensione’s and relatively inexpensive. I encountered very few Irish folks along my walk, but those I met were absolutely fantastic human beings and from many nations including Polish (Karl), Dutch (Father and daughter), Spanish (Pablo from Barcelona and Peter from Noja), United States of America, (Julie O’Connell Bishop, Florida), and of course Irish (Susan and Matt, from Dromahane)
Santurce / Santurtzi – A beautiful port city, with shipbuilding activities still going on in this town, was my first stop / sleep on my Camino. In truth, I was wrecked from the travel and the weeks run up to my leaving home on my spanish little walk. I did soon realise though that I had carried way too much stuff with me and before I left for Castro Urdiales the next morning I was at the Post Office (Correos) to book my bag forward to the next towns I would be staying. Really fantastic service and very reasonably priced, and boy, what a great decision, so don’t hesitate about it, fellow travellers. Two beautiful piece of sculpture grabbed my attention in Santurce/Santurtzi. One was the “Last Sardine Seller”, by sculpture Víctor Goikoetxea. This history and legacy is immortalised in a popular Basque song “Desde Santurce a Bilbao” and another sculpture commerating the thousands of Basque children who were evacuated from the horrors of World War II in Santurtzi port, on the instructions of Jose Antonio Agirre Lekube, lehendakari of the legitimate Government of Euskadi.
Castro Urdiales – This stunning seaport town just inside the autonomous region of Cantabrian was absolutely breathtakingly beautiful (and the weather was great that day). The walk from Pobena to Castro Urdiales was remarkable and typical of the rugged Atlantic coastline that I have grown up with in Irelands Wild Atlantic Way.
Liendo to Laredo (Old Camino trail)
Playa San Julain. A highlight for me was discovering this hidden gem of a beach as I walked the Castro Urdiales to Laredo. It was a steep and precarious pathway down to the beach and a beautiful min-morning break was very welcome.
After reaching the stunning town of Laredo and relaxing the next stage to Noja involved the famous Camino Ferry from Laredo Beach to Santona (Barca del Puntal). After our choppy and damp ferry ride it was a lovely walk to Noja. A beautiful seaside town with a fantastic beach and a gorgeous church dedicated to Saint Peter the Apostle. In early May the town was very quiet but on talking to Pablo, holidaying from Barcelona, the population of many towns along the Cantabrian coast, swells to multiples of the year-round inhabitants, with hundreds of thousands of Spanish escaping the inland heat to the coastline. This place is well worth a visit.
And finally, to all those pilgrims I have met on the trails and tracks of the Camino de Santiago. Come visit the tracks and trails of Ireland.
For Information. No Artificial Intelligence (AI) assistance was used in the publication of this Blog. We also endeavour (not always successful unfortunately) to use content on linked sites that is created by a genuine content creator and not AI Bots or AI narrated. Garry
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