May 4, 2025, Sarria

It was cold and damp this morning but not raining…yet. One thing I definitely noticed is that there are more people walking, Sarria is the second most popular place to start the Camino

The Camino splits in Triacastela and joins back again in Aguiada. The standard route through San Xil is 7.2 km shorter than going through the Samos option. Last night at dinner I overheard, at the table next to me, someone saying the Samos route was longer, but flatter. When I looked in my guide book I saw nothing about the Samos route being flatter, only longer. I am starting to feel the multiple day of walking catching up to me so I chose the shorter route the was 3 plus miles less. Since I started walking with Malcolm on April 18th I have walked 211 miles.

My walk was through very pretty countryside, the majority of it was in the country away from the roads. There were not a lot of services available while walking today. Most of the villages I walked through were dairy based like the last few days. Someone had set up a vending machine so I took advantage of a snickers bar and bag of cookies. On the far side of the village was a donation based rest stop with lots of healthier food choices, wish I had waited.

I had to cross a small stone walking bridge over a fairly active creek and walk down some stone steps carved into the hillside.

At the beginning of the day there was a definite measure of uphill walking, this means that downhill will follow and in fact most of the day was down hill but over good paths. Parts of the uphill were tedious with water running down the middle of the Camino. At times I had to walk about 100 paces and then take a rest break due to the incline.

When I got to Calvor there was a bar called Casa Frank. It was time for a breakfast, I had a meat empanadas, wedge of the local cow cheese and a fresh squeezed orange juice.

Just about anyone selling orange juice here has a machine for fresh juice. The cheese was outstanding, closer to a fresh soft cheese. While leaving I saw Irene and Frank on the Camino passing by. I caught up with them later in Aguiada where they had stopped to eat themselves, no sight of Ybr today.

It now started to rain in earnest so it was time for my rain coat, I had tried to ignore the rain a few times already today. At one point I encountered an elderly man walking uphill towards me, he asked if I might have a cigarette as he forgot his. I was able to answer back using my Italian as the terms for smoking are almost identical, he just moved on and I could hear him ask the 2 ladies 20 feet behind me.

When I was on the outskirts of Sarria I stopped at a restaurant where octopus is boiled by the front door. I went to the bar and had a vermouth and soda, plus a bottle of mineral water.

I had about 25 minutes of walking left to get to my hotel. When I arrived it was 1:50, check in was at 2:00 and no one was to be found so I sat on a park bench with another hotel guest and waited until the correct time to get into my room. One thing for certain is that Sarrianis not a pretty as some of the small towns I have walked through.

After I got situated I thought it a good idea to go out to find some food. Today is Mother’s Day in Spain. I walked by a cafe and saw a new group that I met yesterday, Two sisters Deborah and Diane and Diane’s husband Paul. I joined them for dinner, I had a seafood and chicken paella, not as good as the one at my cooking class in Barcelona 3 weeks ago, it seems so far away now.