Camino : Sarria to Ventas de Narón

Sarria is the starting point of hiking the trail for majority of the people as it is 115km away and that is nearly the minimum distance one has to walk in order to get a certificate showing they walked on it.

With my long walk of 51km yesterday, I started the day a bit later than usual. I was surprised to see Aaron, the young fast walker from England to be at the same Albergue as me, and we both saw each other as we were starting out.

We were out on the path at 7:30AM and saw so many breakfast places that were open.

As I had skipped dinner yesterday, I took my time for a leisurely long breakfast and got a chance to talk to many pilgrims who are starting their day from Sarria today. I met a very young South Korean walker who had just started. Another set of four Spaniards from Madrid were impressed with the 19 days I had taken to get so far.

Starting at Sarria, the credential needed minimum two daily stamps to prove that you indeed walked on the trail. There were many food establishments and bars, which had a stamp that anybody could put on their credential.

Everyone was taking their selfie or a picture at this spot.

This was a very big town and had many trees and beautiful views everywhere.

Walking on the path, I noticed a new set of cemeteries which looked very modern and it seemed like these were the overground municipal burials.

The mile marker distance was rapidly approaching two digits from the several days of three digits that I had been seeing.

There were so many walkers on the path today and I had not seen as many in one day as I saw in the past 18 days combined.

The greenery continued, and there was a nice view of the highway bridge which look pretty modern and spectacular.

Big groups of people were walking together, and it was sometimes hard to get by them. Since I like to walk really fast downhill, I started just running downhill which caused noise prompting people to look back and automatically give me way.

The walk today was quite different because there were so many people around to talk to and to learn their backgrounds. Since I had started later in the day and was well fed, it was a pretty upbeat walk.

The flowers and grass, shrubs and trees on the trail continued to be ever present.

It was quite steep at many places and you could see who had trained for it, who was struggling and how many breaks people were taking to climb that hill.

Some spans were paved and were easy on my feet as my blisters had grown by now.

There were remnants of old fortifications and walls as we were getting closer to Santiago.

This marker was very well appreciated by people who were trying to complete the full Camino.

There were many water fountains for pilgrims like these.

I stopped at this place because it looked very festive and had a very good backyard. About 30 or more people were sitting and enjoying sangrias, scallops,

seafood, and I took a break here. I came across four people from US and got talking to them. Three of them were from Venezuela and one was from Guatemala.

The midpoint for the day today was Portomarin and I had heard about it from other pilgrims. It had a very good setting.

A bridge at the entry to the town had the liberty bell which everybody was taking turns to ring.

This huge staircase had to be climbed to get to the streets of Portomarin, and the city streets were quite steep as well.

The Romanian pilgrims that I had seen over 10 days ago, happened to be in Portomarin at the same time as me. I had not seen them for past several days. Talking to them, I discovered that they had blisters requiring medical treatment and a mandatory break. They had recuperated, taken a bus to a nearby location and resumed their walk. We enjoyed a great Pulpo meal together.

For the first time on this trail, I saw two Japanese ladies, one was from Nagasaki and another was from Tokyo. After I started walking, I was telling Aaron about this and another woman overheard it. That person was also from Japan. And she noticed the two Japanese Ladies who had walked to the same spot at that moment. They all got a chance to meet up and mingle.

Many portions of the path were very well paved in this area.

Even though most areas had canopies of trees, some others were more open spaces with grasslands.

It was afternoon by now, and people who were walking 20 km or so for a day had reached their destination. The route was pretty lonely going forward. Some of it went next to the highway.

Tired and hungry, I took a break at this restaurant above and had a very delicious cake with some coffee. It was the jolt I needed to continue going.

Aaron, who had walked with me in the morning section had agreed with me to go to the town of Palas de Rei, which was 10 more kilometers ahead. I had no energy left. I saw a very good bar and restaurant with outdoor seating. There were 20 or more couples sitting outside and enjoying food. The weather was nice. I just stopped and enjoyed some good fish dinner there.

The restaurant also had an Albergue, but it was completely full. Just 50 m ahead was another Albergue with plenty of room. I went there and was surprised to see the Argentinian fast walker. He recognized me and I told him about the snake I encountered right after he passed me a few days on our route to O Cebreiro.

I had walked fewer kilometers then planned, but it was still a satisfactory day and I knew that the whole trip would be over in just a matter of couple of days.