Today we resumed our pilgrimage. Starting from Sarria, which is stage 29 of the Camino, we had five more days of walking to reach Santiago de Compostela.
After our long break in León, I was eager to get walking again. The finish suddenly seemed much closer. Since a "true pilgrim" must walk a minimum of 100Km on the Camino, about 50% of the pilgrims
begin their journey in Sarria. Santiago is 117 Km (73 miles) from Sarria. This means that there are many more people on the trail with us, some of which are large tour or church groups. Unexpectantly,
more walkers meant fewer people to talk with.
We did introduce ourselves to Becky and Lisa from Harrisburg, Pennsylvannia when we all stopped to take the same photo at a river crossing.
We stopped for a break at a cafe in Barbadelo. Lil sat down with another pilgrim sitting alone at a table and soon was in an extended, animated conversation with Nestor from the Canary Islands.
I had not realized that northeastern Spain was so lush and fertile, as we discovered when we walked the first seven stages.
Now that we were walking in northwestern Spain, we discovered that the landscape is the same - green farms and crops everywhere.
I had this vision in my head of Spain being an arid, brown landscape, but - in May at least - it is a verdant fertile land.
At the highest point the Camino is lined by ancient rock walls and big shady trees, which made for some fine walking.
Other times we got views out over the hilly lands. With good weather, we had ideal conditions for long distance walking. To enter the town of Portomarin, you must walk across a big bridge over the Miño river. The Miño river was dammed, which flooded part of the original town. When the
water is clear you can still see old buildings immersed in the river. The old medieval bridge is still standing beneath the water as well, though it sometimes it appears in late summer when the water levels
are lower.
There was an information kiosk at a viewpoint before crossing the new bridge. We checked it out, and found a "Liberty Bell" there. We met Terry and Nancy from Western Massachusetts there and had a nice conversation with them.
Wonder of wonders, we found a restaurant serving dinner in Portomarin at 5:30 PM for €15 each! The meal came with a small pitcher of wine. Since I ordered a beer, Lil had to polish off all the wine herself,
after which she staggered off to Sunday evening's pilgrim mass.
It was a good day.
Still Photographs
