Day 34 - Sarria to Portomarin

Our hotel in Sarria was 500 metres off the Camino. A fairly solid 3*, we would say. Lynn wasn't feeling 100% and when she laid down, promptly fell asleep for 2 hours. Too many sleepless nights. She was woken up because Kristjan wanted to 'hang out' (aka have a video call).

After that, we walked back to the Camino and walked it through town, looking for a perigrino special. We saw the church, the monastery, and the peregrino store. None of the places offering a peregrino special really caught our fancy, and before we knew it we were back at the hotel.  It's wierd, but we had been  congratulating ourselves that Kevin was in a different part of town, yet here we were almost looking for him.  Also, all the shops were open as usual on a Friday, so we decided the hotel clerk must have been warning us that in Portomarin, all the shops would close at 2 pm on Saturday and be closed on Sunday.

We tried the 15 euro 'menu de dia' at our hotel and were pleasantly surprised.  It may have been the best supper so far.  Lynn had mushrooms, eggs and shrimp as a starter (never saw that one before), and veal as the main.  Russ had mixed salad and salmon.  Both courses were excellent and the white wine a very tasty change from the vino tinto (all along the Camino so far the wine included with dinner was only red, in Galicia it can be white or red). We sat right beside the butcher, chopping up meat all through the meal. It was a miracle he didn't chop off any of his fingers or his hand.

Lynn only ate about half her dinner and the waiters and butcher/cook were very concerned she didn't like it. She assured them it was very good, just too much. In spite of that she managed to eat all her dessert. Another couple said that the restaurant was recommended, and we now know why.

This morning we were off at 8:15.  The two very obvious observations were that it is staying darker later, and there were a ton more perigrinos on the trail, Sarria being the last starting point where can get a certificate that you walked the compostela walk.  The new walkers were obvious for several reasons: they were very clean, took pictures of every cow and church they saw, and some were developing foot problems early on.

Of course, we had to climb out of Sarria.  It was a 215 meter climb. It was foggy, although you could see the full moon. We commented that we had been lucky to see two full moons on our journey. The fog unfortunately obscured the view of the scenery, so there were no sweeping valleys and hills to be seen, mind you, we were very occupied with watching where we were stepping.  We seem to have discovered the secret Spanish stash of dairy cows, and had to watch for what cows left behind on the road. We are told that this is rural Galicia at it's best, wet and green with the sweet smell and squelch of cow manure underfoot.

We met up with Rosa just as we began this morning, and walked with her for a kilometer or so. We parted after that because we walk much faster and wanted to get to Portomarin before 2pm when the stores close. We probably won't see her again as she isn't taking a rest day here, but her husband is Canadian and they frequently visit Canada, so we told her to let us know the next time she comes, and visit Ottawa.

After we parted, we started wondering why we were taking a day off in Portomarin, since we were now losing all the remaining friends we have met. But once we started the days' 305 meter decent, we realized that the wear and tear of 30 days of walking, the last 10 in a row, was starting to take it's toll.

We arrived at Portomarin just after noon and made sure we stocked up on provisions for Sunday before the shops all closed until Monday.

The place we are staying today and tomorrow is 800 meters off the Camino, and as we were limping in, we thought this better be good. Well it is lovely - like a lodge in a park in Ontario. There is even a campground here. The fellow said we have the best room, and it is just what the doctor ordered. We have a private deck outside our room with chairs and table, overlooking the river and a medieval bridge. The room is very spaceous and has air conditioning. A bathtub would have been nice, but this will be a wonderful place to relax and rest the feet. They have horse back riding here, and the horses are right outside the room - eating apples that have fallen on the ground.

The end is now in sight.  Only four more days of walking to Santiago. We are not sure whether we have gained any new insight, only time will tell. Enthusiasm today was a bit low, but that may because of exhaustion, or just simply because the end is close.

Summary - good days hike with lots of new pilgrims on the road.

Distance today - 22.5km
Distance total - 701.2km