Big River

Today as we entered the city of Portomarín we crossed the largest body of water since we crossed the Atlantic Ocean, the Rio Mino river. 

Today’s walk was from Sarria to Portomarín about 23 kilometers or 14 miles.  It was a sunny and warm day with temperatures in the mid 70’s. Most of our walk was on good soft paths through tree covered areas and along some streams. 

But we did encounter one steep rocky section.

For those interested in some of the architecture and structures in this part of Spain here are some pictures I snapped along the way today. Note most of the roofs in this part of Spain are made from slate stone. 

 

Here is a picture of Phil at the post marking the 100 kilometers to Santiago point in our pilgrimage. People who complete this last 100 kilometers and receive at least two stamps in their credentials booklets per day qualify to receive Compostela de Santiago.  The Compoststela is a historical document in Latin that certifies the completion of the pilgrimage to the Tomb of Apóstol Santiago. 

Today’s blog posted by Kim

A short hike through the woods

 Hey all, Mitch here. Today's walk took us from Triacastela to Sarria. We actually had two different paths available. One went south a bit, stayed along roads, and was around 7 KM longer. It did go through the Monastary town of Samos, but as all of us much prefer dirt paths to walking along the road, we instead opted to take the northern path.

This route opened with a bit of a climb, but compared to the mountain we climbed up just two days ago, it was a far easier hike. Additionally, both on the way up and on the way down the state of the trail was quite good, which made for much easier walking.

As we get closer and closer to the coast, the flora we're walking by is definitely getting greener and more lush. We're even starting to regularly see moss, ferns, and ivy, which are great reminders of home.

In addition to great green trees, climbing up these hills also got us some great long views. Honestly the scenery since O Cebreiro has really been breathtaking, we've had much more clear long views than even the ones that we had in the Pyrenees.

At the end of the day we reached Sarria, the largest town that we've stayed in since León:

Since it was a shorter walk that some of the ones we've done recently, we were actually able to get into town by Noon, which gave us plenty of time to rest our feet, do some laundry, and get some tasty lunch. Getting closer and closer to the coast, Seafood is becoming more and more prevalent in the quisine. Given that we've been following road signs with scallop shells on them and have had scallop shells on our backpacks, it only seemed proper to get some to eat:

They were very tasty.

Now comes the final stretch, and since Sarria sits just over 100KM from Santiago, it's also the starting place for a lot of pilgrims. We've been seeing more and more pilgrim traffic over the last week, and expect to see an explosion of pilgrims starting tomorrow.

The Descent

 Hello. It’s Phil.

So there’s this mountain that, as you see in the previous blog, poses a significant challenge. Today was the over the mountain and down phase. Since most of this walk overlooks scenic valleys and vistas, the posted photos may look similar. I do think that the photos just don’t do  a full job of capturing the breathtaking beauty of the landscape. As we walk along, you are tempted to snap a picture every few steps.

I was happy to complete this stage because the guidebook emphasizes being careful when descending since there a number of steep places. We endured, showed caution, and triumphed in the end. 

We are now in the town of Triacastela. Everyone is tired after several long days of walking the Camino. Spirits are high as we see our distance from Santiago getting shorter. 

The Mountain.

 Hi, it is Bob blogging again. Today is the hobgoblin of my nightmares of the Camino. The climb to O'Cebreiro is the biggest challenge after the first day with Foncebadon being the third worst. We have already transcended the first two, so now we had to do the big one. It is a long stage - 18 miles and then it is the biggest climb since St. Jean, Pied de Port. nearly 3000 feet from a 1800 foot base elevation. The path is 16 to18%

grade for 5 miles. After much trepidation it was gratefully accomplished. The climb was tough, and Kim was the king of the mountains and now wears the polka dot jersey into the finishline at Santiago, but the rest of us mules get the badge of having accomplished the stage.

All along the route today were cats and freeways. Mitch took pictures of the cats and the freeways soared to greater and greater heights as we climbed (spoiler alert: the freeway climbed away from us).

The scenery from the top is amazing. You feel like you are on top of the world with 500 of you best friends and acquaintances and about another 1000 newcomers you have never seen before. This is because the first 70 percent of the camino are people who have walked from St. Jean in France, the same as us. Now, there are many more who have just joined. The completion certificate only requires that a pilgrim walk the last 100 km of the camino. For bikers, 200 km, and they can ride those no effort electronic bikes and horseback riders can get by with 200 km also, but they don't have to pickup their horses**t that the walkers have to navigate around. 

Near the top of the climb, we finally crossed out of the autonomous political arena of Castilla y León into the Automous political arena of Galicia. We spent three days in Navarre, four days in La Rioja, and since then, 21 days in Castillia y León. Now, finally, for the last 8 days, we will be in Galicia. 

Tonight, on the top of the world, we attended a pilgrim church service in O'Cebreiro that happens every evening during the pilgrim season. It was a normal short form Catholic mass. It is in Spanish, but it was encouraging to me that every segment of the service was similar to our Lutheran service. we had a greeting, opening prayer, lesson, homily, words of intinction, Lords prayer, Lamb of God, communion, closing, benediction, etc. Then all the pilgrims gathered around the altar and There was a special sending in all represented languages for us. The priest asked what languages were present, got out his book and each language sent a representative to read the sending for their language group along the road to Santiago. Each pilgrim was given a pebble by the priest to carry to Santiago. we all gave up our imported rocks at Cruz de Ferro, and now we have a new burden to carry to the finish line for our pilgrimage.

This has been a very fulfilling and successful day.

Grapes of Spain

 As we walk through Spain we are grateful to the many Spanish people we have encountered; they are gracious and have a beautiful and clean country.  

In at least most of the parts of the cities we have traveled they run street sweepers every day. 

Today we walked through the city of Ponferrada and saw the Castle de los Templarios. 

 

The pilgrims Phil, Bob, and Mitch crossing the bridge in 

Ponferrada.

But the best part of today’s walk was the path through the fields of grapevines and chatting with other pilgrims along the way.

Tonight we rest in Villafranca del Bierzo.

Posted by Kim