After a quick but substantial breakfast of whatever when could find that was veggie (I will come back to this later) in the local mini supermarket we set off on day 2. We soon found the Camino signs, including the lovely metal shell on the floor and headed out of Portugalete. It takes a long while to walk anywhere, especially if you are trying to get out of a city. Most of the next 2 hours were on a cycle path.

This is the first sign for La Arena and we had really been looking forward to seeing it. This would be the first beach on our journey. It was 6 miles away and the cycle path soon came to an end and we started on the country lanes. This is what we came for.

There are 2 things that really stick in my mind from the morning of day 2. Everyone you pass says ‘Buen Camino’ which means ‘have a good journey’. Whether they are walking, running or on a bike, everyone greets you with a smile and a nice word.

The other thing is the crazy cat lady we saw. There were a lot of stray cats. We saw quite a few community neutering programmes, which is quite heartening. Some folks out there do care. Even better, we saw a lady dragging a couple of suitcases full of cat food up the hill to feed the cats. She’ll never know it, but what a legend.

As it approached midday we arrived at the beach at La Arena. Wow. It’s beautiful and there’s almost no-one there. I really wasn’t expecting this. I just didn’t realise that the beaches would be so nice.

There was a café on the edge of the beach. Take a look at this view. What a place to have some food. We tried to navigate our way through what was on offer without ordering any hidden meat items and enjoyed a coffee in the sun. This is what it’s about. Not a care in the world, other than the journey ahead.

I had a chat with a couple on local people in the café and they said that there had been a land slide on the headland at the other end of the beach. Ultimately, there was a diversion as it was too dangerous. It was a pity not to have the sea views for a while, but we found a brilliant will with Down-esque green countryside, before we walked through a rickety old tunnel to find beautiful rugged coastline. It really is beautiful.