Zarautz to Deba
Flysch
- Distance
- 21 km
- Climb
- 540 m up, 545 m down
- Ground
- 0 to 280 m
- Time
- 5 to 6 hours
- Difficulty
- moderate
- Underfoot
- coastal, forest, dirt, paved, cobblestone
Where this day sits on the Camino del Norte
Above, the highest and lowest ground of each of its 34 stages. Below, the word each day is given.
From open-pilgrimages: each stage's highest and lowest ground and its interior theme.
The day
If you take the coastal variant you reach the Zumaia flysch: cliffs of layered sedimentary rock pushed vertical by geological time, a UNESCO Global Geopark. The rock is the age of the dinosaur extinction and the layers read like a book. Whether you take flysch or the inland route, the day ends in Deba, a small town where the Camino crosses the Deba river on a medieval bridge and climbs into a 13th-century church with a rose window that no photograph prepares you for. The Church of Santa María de Deba was built by pilgrims for pilgrims.
What pilgrims often meet here
- Getaria and Juan Sebastián Elcano — the first circumnavigator
- The flysch cliffs at Zumaia if you take the coastal variant
- The rose window at Santa María de Deba
- First time your shoulders start to accept the pack without complaint
The cliffs at Zumaia are 65 million years old. What does your tiredness feel like measured against that?
The ground
Inland route via Askizu and Itziar is standard; a coastal variant via Zumaia and the UNESCO flysch cliffs is slightly longer but more dramatic. Getaria with its Elcano monument (the first man to complete a circumnavigation) is ~4 km in.
The light
Sunrise and sunset in Zarautz depend on the day you walk.
Walk it with Pilgrim
In Pilgrim's Honor mode you can walk this stage as it is drawn here, and save its maps for days with no signal. The morning opens with this day's word, Flysch, and its story. When you arrive, it asks the question above, and you can answer out loud. Your walk stays on your phone.
With Pilgrim on your phone, this opens the stage, ready to begin. Without it, you'll see the stage and where to get the app.