May 15 - Day 32
- Arlene
- May 16, 2018
- 3 min read
Updated: Jul 21, 2018
Day 32 - Sarria to Portomarin - 22 km
The sun was shining today! It was beautiful! No rain gear required. And we soon had to shed a layer of warmth.
A lot of pilgrims start their journey in Sarria as 100 km is the minimum required distance for walkers to qualify for a Compostella certificate (200 km for bikers). And Sarria is a good spot to start as it is 114 km to Santiago and is a good sized town, fairly easy to get to (I can only assume that since I had to arrive by foot). So anyway, the trail was a lot busier today. Some times in the past days we could go stretches without seeing anyone. Now there is almost always some pilgrims in view. But not too bad yet. I can imagine the busier summer season. No thanks.
We started to poke a little fun at the newbies (just amongst ourselves). Things like: "their socks are way too white, must be new pilgrims." Or "Can you imagine wearing jeans on the Camino, they must have started at Sarria." Or "they are walking way too fast, must be newbies, we'll catch them later."
We started our walk with a long uphill climb (seems to happen most days). More gradual than many days though. We stopped at a cafe for a snack, then walked on. We came across a great resting place that an elderly woman and man were working at. It was amazing! Home cooked pastries, fruit, hot and cold beverages, etc. And all Donativo - that means by donation, pay what you can or want. We like to be more generous with these. I am so amazed what some people do for the pilgrims. They prepare the food and drink and are happy to provide a respite for the weary pilgrims.
Our path today was lovely. There were hills, but with hills usually comes views. And we got some spectacular ones again today. Lots of trees, farms, moss. Everything very green. I really like spring for walking the Camino. Not that I have tried other seasons, but there is so much growing at this time of year.
The only downside to that is the manure spreading on the fields. Sometimes the trail is a little stinky. But it probably helps with the crops, so I don’t mind.
Oh, about 100 km. A couple days ago when we entered the region of Galicia they have markers erected with “km to Santiago” marks. The first one was 160 km. Today we went by 100 km. These are both motivating and annoying. Motivating as you see the distance get smaller, but annoying when they have the markers too close together, often a few within one km, so when the distance is only 200 m closer it can be overkill.
As we entered Portomarin we saw the town on the hill, then the large body of water. It is actually a river but swollen due to a dam. When they built the dam it actually flooded the original town. For the ancient churches, they brought them stone by stone up the hill to be rebuilt in the new town.
Today’s accommodation was also done via booking.com, so we had a look at addresses and found that it is not the albergue of the same name, but a pension in a different location. Not a problem today because the town had an excellent map at its entrance, so we went right to it. For this we do get a private room.
Today’s lesson: It is inspiring how some people will do amazing things for others, without expectation of reward.
Tea and pastry 3€
Donativo rest stop 5€
Pension 17.50€
Supper 10€
Interesting place. To see exactly where it was located I looked it up on the net. I ran into another Camino blog. Did you walk through the portal (another of those structures that was moved brick by brick) when you arrived? Although you did not mention it in this entry seems cheap wine is the name of the game in that area too. He found a store selling some for 0.61 Euros.