Today we joined the hoards of pilgrims who start their journey from Sarria. To receive a Compostela ( a document from the Catholic Church that historically granted plenary indulgences but now just states in Latin that you completed the pilgrimage to Santiago), a pilgrim must walk 100 km or bike 200 km for spiritual or religious reasons. Ergo, the majority of pilgrims start in Sarria, 114 km from Santiago. Since we will have walked over 200 km, perhaps we should get some extra credit, what do think?
So we were off at 7:30 am, hoping to beat out the precipitation predicted for this afternoon. As the days have progressed we seem to be proceeding more slowly, as we have discovered aches and pains in muscles we didn’t know we had. And I deserve a Guinness book of world record in the number and dimensions of blisters an individual can develop in less than a week on the Camino.
The weather was much like Ireland – cool, overcast, and misty. We crossed over the Sarria River and headed uphill (of course!) through this charming little city of 16,000 inhabitants, turning right past a monastery and over a medieval bridge, to join the trail. We passed fields of corn and wheat, crossed railroad tracks, and continued through stands of oak trees. We stopped for breakfast (cafe con leche and cake – we’re in Spain, remember?) at a small cafe in Vilei, after a crowd of pilgrims had just left. It was quite a set-up: great location, café, souvenir shop, albergue and the requisite rest room! It was there that we first encountered a young Korean woman who seemed to stop at every cafe that we did and walked at about the same pace – really slow!
This was a day of hiking through farms, cattle grazing areas, wooded areas, and a significant amount of uphill climbs. And a day of almost always encountering groups of pilgrims who had obviously started from Sarria, as they only carried small day packs or just trekkkng poles. It was also was a day of dodging cyclists who somehow are able to ride these steep and rocky trails. And I mean really big rocks, the kind that would cause one to twist or break an ankle! There were also areas where we crossed small streams via primitive rock bridges.
As we hiked through the fields, we heard strains of bagpipe music. As this part of Spain has a Celtic heritage, it was lovely to see a man playing a bagpipe (quite beautifully) here on the Camino raising our spirits, like his music, to the heavens.
It never did rain. In fact, the sun broke through the clouds during the mid afternoon. We stopped four times, to rest, consume huge amounts of fluid (predominantly orange soda) and potato chips (a great source of salt) and to rest our feet. Despite the cooler temperature, the humidity was such that one began sweating profusely with effort – and there were lots of hills to climb the first half of the day’s route. We met up with Diana from Australia and Charlie and Betsy from South Carolina several times today, usually at one of our rest stops. We may be hitting a wall today, as we were moving verrrrry slowly. The worst part was (get ready, this is disgusting) my enormous blister on the left heel decided to rupture and a huge new blister formed on the sole of the same foot. But somehow you keep on going through the initial burst of pain and maybe it’s not as bad as you expect.
We passed our halfway point to Santiago (the 100 km marker) today and it’s downhill (not literally) from here. We will be in Santiago in four more days!
We could see Portomarin in the distance. The town was totally rebuilt in the 1960s after the Mino River was dammed up, submerging the original town that originated in Roman times. In fact, when the water level is low, the ancient Roman bridge can be seen near the present day bridge. Our hotel is the Pousada Portomarin, way up at the top of the town, so we got to climb up, up, up again! It appears to be a converted monastery or convent with a charming lobby, lovely hardwood floors and no air conditioning in the rooms! It’s 83 degrees in the room and the opened windows are useless as there is absolutely no breeze! We had dinner at the hotel restaurant, joining Brian and Matthew from New Jersey. We have truly enjoyed their company. Pleasant conversation accompanied our pilgrim’s menu of caldo Gallego (a kale soup), the Spanish version of a salad, an interesting fish casserole and a Spanish version of lasagna. The off to bed, as we are planning an early start (hopefully 7:15 am) as we have 15 miles to cover and we want to beat out the predicted precipitation.
Lesson of the day: A blister is a lot like all the angst we carry in our lives – once the blister bursts, it hurts like hell for a while, but you work through the pain and keep on going with your life’s journey.
Camino Musings 