Sarria to Portomarin

Walking out of Sarria felt like a fresh beginning! I don’t know why. Maybe because it’s the begging of the Camino for some. On paper we are in the home stretch the last days of the Camino. In reality those days are long. One day sometimes feels like a week has passed.

Regardless of all of that. It’s good to be here.💜

it’s one thing to walk 17,20,25 KM one time/day. When you are walking that many KMs day after day (stacking) it takes a different kind of toll on the body that I could not have ever imagined. There is a good tired, painful tired, joyful tired and spiritual happy tired. All being felt at the same time or one at a time. Most of my mornings are popping 600-800mg Ibuprofen, slathering my feet with foot glide, stretching, squatting and using my stick to keep me moving. Sore , rusty, rickety, stiff, swollen are everyday adjectives used to describe the morning routine as a new stage is started.

As we are walking out of Sarria the voices and conversation is louder and the stick clicking the ground is noticeable. People taking photos everywhere. For me it was fun seeing the new Pilgrims get excited. I did wonder how they would feel by the end of the day. One man nervously asked me how I felt after three days. I provided tips on how to deal with feet and leg fatigue and wished him well. I also met woman who is singing in a choir that performs at the churches on The Camino and they were to perform at the church in Portomarín. I was excited to hear some live music or singing.

Some fun stops were where a old man was pulling wild flowers and handing them out. He handed me some and it was very nice.

I reached the 100km marker. Yay! The Taiwanese group took my picture!

There was a big group of folks from Taiwan and they were very friendly, happy and wore bright orange backpack covers. I ended up walking with them. We would help each other navigate the rugged part of the path and take photos together! I enjoyed these folks very much they made the walk fun!

I saw a live turkey. I never saw one before.

There was also a part on the trail at the end and that was a little dangerous and that was fun to walk with the Taiwanese because they celebrated it!Read more