Thursday, 2 October 2014

Triacastela 130 km to Ferreiros 98 km... An aromatic day!

This picture was supposed to be in yesterday's blog:
Supposed to be the highest point on the Camino, but as usual accounts vary. Notice the statue of the old style pilgrim in the background, many variations on this all along the way.
We are realizing that we have started a whole new Camino for a variety of reasons. First of all, Galicians are a whole new breed of Spaniard, seem to be not quite as friendly and welcoming, possibly because they see/ have to deal with the bulk of the Peregrinos. One only has to walk 100 km to get their Compostela so many people just begin their Camino in Leon, Astorga or Sarria which we passed through today.
Sunrise over the mountains outside of Triacastela.
The morning began with the mist in the mornings, with many references to Middle Earth and surmise how much of the day it would take to get through the Hobbit trilogy followed by The Lord of the Rings Trilogy.
Mist over the valley in the morning.
We met up with Olga a 27 year old from Prague who works for Deloitte putting together companies for mergers and acquisitions. Sharon walked with her for about 3 hours and determined she is a bit of a prodigy, speaks multiple languages fluently and is well versed and able to speak on just about an subject. She was hurting and it always helps to walk and talk, you forget about any pains or discomfort. (Blair enjoyed a quiet morning walk).
Olga and Sharon walking down in the mist.
We descended into Sarria ( still in mist that didn't dissipate until after 1 pm.) and parted ways with Olga. We have heard all kinds of horror stories that pilgrims come out of the blue once you hit Sarria but so far we have not experienced a huge new group.
Taxis bringing in those that are starting in Sarria.
We have learned that we are in the O Courel Mountains but now at a lower elevation in rolling fam lands. Most of the day was again aromatic and we spent a good deal of time dodging various types of manure on the road.
A lot of country lanes today.
Also farm meadows.
Many people carry books for guides, this is ours,we are down to half a sheet. (Notice Blair's "Camino" tan. The light areas are where the pole straps cover.)
Today we ended up in a brand new Alburgue in a mountain meadow whereas, yesterday we had a turret room in a15 the century fort, the windows were actually only big enough to stick your arrows through, lots of adventure on the Camino!
Last nights turret room.
Blair relaxing in front of the brand new modern alburgue after a long day.
And of course we are now down to double digits:)
On the way in we hit the 100 km marker, Sharon leaving a stone.
Blair leaving a stone...

 

Of course about 200 meters down the road another marker that said 100 km, your guess is as good as ours!

 

1 comment:

  1. Great photos. We are enjoying reading about this much more than we would enjoy doing it. We are very please to say about the Camino... "we have friends who..."

    Take care of those feet!

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