Sarria - Day 33

Breakfast was served at 8 and the we needed to wait for our shuttle rides back into town. Barb opted not to wait and set off on her own as did Ian shortly after. I opted to wait for a lift and used my head start to try and track down someone to help make a reservation at an Albergue at the next town. Without a phone or reasonable Spanish, we had been relying on Hospitaleros to book places for us.

It is a holiday today so no one could be found to help with the phone call. Off Ian and I went, wondering how far ahead Barb had gotten.

Pretty soon Ian had motored ahead and I spent the rest of the walk in solitude moving from the high ground of the mountainside and eventually reaching the farmland below.

Interestingly, the paths seem to be in deep gullies with high steep sides. I am not sure if the path has been worn down by the millions of Peregrinos over the thousands of years or if it is because they are seasonal creeks. Many of the paths had water pouring down them. It would be treacherous footing in the rain for sure. I remember one Peregrino telling me about the paths in Galicia being rivers in the rain and I don't doubt it. I am really glad that we have had no rain in over a week. It was fortunate for us that we were able to complete the mountain leg without having to walk in those paths in the rain.

Triacastile is in a valley surrounded by (guess what) - mountains - so there was a bit of climbing ahead of us to move out of the one valley and into the next where Sarria is. It is only an 18.5 k walk but it was plenty for me, my feet were,still tired from yesterday. Ian was sitting in a bar having a bite to eat when I arrived at about 1:30. He was ready to move on to the next town called Barbdelo which was nearly 6 km further. Barb was no where to be found. I looked for an Albergue In the town. This was going to be a night we all fended for ourselves.

I found a lovely Private Albergue which is right in the centre of town for 10€. I got an email from Barb a short while later that she is in an Albergue just a bit further along. We will meet for dinner. Ian is in his Albergue in the next town. We all have all made reservations in our next stop at Portomarin.

I was able to get photos of the Albergue to show you (now using my smaller SD card)

I should mention that we are in our last leg of the trip to Santiago de Compostela as we have moved from the Territory of Castile y Leon into Galicia, which according to wiki is an autonomous community with an official status of a nationality of Spain. Sarria is a large town and with it being a holiday there is no shops open. It is very pretty and tranquil and a walk around town tonight will be nice.

Sarria's claim to fame is that it is just outside the 100 km limit which marks the minimum distance that a pilgrim can travel to Santiago and still be awarded the certificate of completion, called a Compostela. There are lots of Peregrinos in this town ready to march over the starting line tomorrow.