Jesper and I had both gone to bed in good time and woke up about 6:30, ate breakfast in the kitchen, packaged our things, and hit the road 7:30. Sarria is the down from which most pilgrims start their journey towards Santiago. Reason is that it is the shortest path you have to walk to Santiago in order to become a “certified” pilgrim. And you need to collect at least two stamps in your pilgrims passport every day. You can collect stamps from all hotels, hostels, bars, restaurants and churches, so they are very easy to find.
And there were much more pilgrims than any other day we have experienced so far. Many from outside Spain have arranged their camino through a travel agency and they just carry a daypack while their luggage transfer and accommodation is arranged by the agency. We talked to a danish girl that even traveled with a group and they had their own guide travelling with them to assist in case they needed it. Definitely a different camino experience than what we have had.
We stopped for a coffee already 200 m from the airb&b we had stayed in, and then started the walking.
It was hard to get started. Today was the first day to walk a full day with my backback after having been ill - and still only feeling at 80%. We walked for about 1:30 before talking the first break and a cold softdrink. Sun was winning over they heavy fog from the morning, and it was great with the break. Energy started to come back and the rest of the day was no problem to walk.
After some hours we came to an important milestone - the stone marking that there is only 100 km left - with 6 digits precision, impressive how they measure this…
Landscape today was absolutely amazing as you can see at the picture and video below.
We also met a group of cows
And for the first time in 4 days, I got a real meal - I got a pork and ham sandwich at our next break at about lunch time. I am so happy that the appetite is coming back - slowly.
We arrived at Portomarin about 14:30 and checked into our airb&b. Again we are staying in a “Mansion”, actual a real house with 4 bedrooms/10 beds, and we will be the same 9 tonight as yesterday.
After a nice hot shower, we went back into the town, found the square, and got a cold beer - and I got tapas that I actually ate.
Afterwards we went home and all the rest of the group had arrived or arrived.