May 3, 2025, Triacastela

Welcome to Galicia, opened my drapes to see light rain. I got out my rain gear and got going without any breakfast to start the day. As usual Ybr came up from behind to ask how my stay was last night. He actually tried to walk with me at my pace for a while before announcing he had to go faster which was no surprise.

By the end of the day I would be walking downhill into Galicia, but the first thing of the day was to walk uphill. Even with the rain the terrain was beautiful, lush and green.

I got to a small dairy village and stopped in at the alburgi for breakfast; it was the usual coffee con leche, but I had a tuna empanadas with it. I shared a table with Frank and Irene before they left. I warmed up some, but decided it was time to get moving, I had 13 miles to cover today.

After a couple of kilometers the rain had subsided and I could see a steep climb ahead. It was time to strip off the rain coat as I was starting to overheat. It turned out to be a very steep climb indeed. At the top was another bar so I went in for a cold coke on a cold morning. Outside were 2 large herding dog totally oblivious to the pilgrims walking by. On the way out I chatted with a table of 3 women about my experience 2 years ago at the wine fountain.

It was now time to start to downhill to my destination. This area is cow country so a lot of the Camino is shared with dairy cows, several times the Camino when right through the dairy itself. I spent a lot of time dodging cow pies.

I needed another break and came to an alburge that was part of a dairy. I got a hot tea and couple of oranges for later. Now the trail was definitely going down and the weather was more intermittent rain. I decided to ignore the rain and just walk with it.

I am particularly slow going downhill due to being careful with my knee. It had seemed like I had walked a long way, but I was only halfway through the day. I could see a city down in the valley, but I thought it looked too far to be Triacastela. When passing one of the dairy barns and husband and wife started to walk back home. I asked in Spanish it the city I could see was Triacastle, he said yes and that I was 3km away, that was the same as my Apple watch, but it still looked to far. As it turned out my watch was right on, I finally came into town and found my hotel.

There was a little mix up with my room, but I was able to get it straightened out, did my wash and headed out to find a meal.

Tomorrow I walk to Sarria, the most popular place for people to start their Camino. I am expecting it to me a bit of a madhouse. I have now been walking for 16 days.