Day 48 through 51, Four great days and almost there!

July 4th through July 7th, O´Cebreiro to Tricastela, to Sarria, to Portomarin, to Palas de Rei

71km to Santiago, 881km from start

Distances: 21km, 25km, 23km, 26km

Wednesday, July 4 was a very good one for us. After breakfast, we took a taxi back to where we left off in O´Cebreiro.  Plenty cold, windy, and foggy but the taxi driver assured us that the better weather lay ahead.  We worked our way across the last high ridges of the Cordillera Cantrabica and after 2 km got our first sunbreak.  It continued to clear but stayed chilly.

It´s an area of high mountain pastures and rural villages. At one point, we followed a man, his dog, and a dozen dairy cows moving up our path to new pastures.  After 12 km we stopped at a small albergue for coffee.  Just outside the albergue, an old lady in traditional dress came around a corner and offered us fresh crepes. We enjoyed the treat and the meeting.

The rest of the day was down, often steeply, but the path was firm and didn´t give us much trouble. For much of the last two hours we walked with a Belgian fellow who started the Camino from his home near Brugge. That´s a 1500km trip, nearly 80 days of continuous walking, and topped anything we´ve heard of on the Camino so far.

We got into Tricastilla around 1 pm.  A nice town with a pilgrim mass in the evening.

Thursday, July 5 was fine weather all day.  It was a 25 km hike to the town of Sarria, with a stop halfway at Samos. Set in a small valley, Samos has a monastery dating back almost 1500 years. We stopped for coffee and took a monastery tour. The last half of the day was hot, seemed longer than the guidebook said, and involved several more ups and downs than we expected(never a favorite for Marie).

A good break in the afternoon was when a group of cows joined us on the trail. A calf got ahead of us on the path moving in a different direction than his mother or the farmer wanted. The farmer was nice enough about it but the mother was pissed.  She came barreling past us to get to the calf.  Marie really enjoys encounters with her "udder buddies" so it took the edge off the last part of the trip.

We got into Sarria at about 2pm.  Sarria is about 120 km from Santiago and is the last place on the Camino you can start and still earn a Compostella (there´s a 100 km minimum).   For the last three or four days we´d seen many more Spanish folks on the trail.  Starting in Sarria their numbers got really big.  Since the beginning of July, I´d say there have been 150 - 200 hikers on our stage of the trail each day.  Beginning in Sarria that number easily doubled and included several youth groups and families.  I got worried about getting rooms, so I reserved several days in advance.

Friday was another excellent day through rolling green farmland and along shaded lanes between small villages. We´ve been very lucky with the weather so far through Gallacia and hoped it would last.  The trail was definitely more crowded.  The youth groups travel in packs.  If they´re going faster, they crowd you off the trail and if slower are so involved talking with each other that you practically have to separate them with your arms to pass.  Still, everyone´s pretty cheerful and full of "Buon Camino" and "Hola".... always a good pick-me-up.

The town at the end of this stage was Portomarin.  It is on the edge of a large reservoir. In 1950 the entire village was moved up several hundred meters before the river was dammed. That´s a good thing because they saved a 13th century church and several old buildings with shaded walkways. It was a good place to spend the afternoon and evening.  We also got a chance to meet up with folks we´d seen for several days along the Camino including two Irish gents who started in Leon, a German lady who has walked straight through since St. Jean, and a young couple from Denmark.

Although it started cool and gray, Saturday was our fourth straight day of good weather.  At 26 km it was one of our longest days, so a few shady morning hours was just the ticket.  More green Gallacian countryside which could easily pass for the west of Ireland or Wales.

The trail was crowded through much of this stage. The "short Camino" hikers were very perky yesterday.  Marie and I took some satisfaction from their noticably slower pace and flagging spirits on their second day out.  The kids were easy to pass and were often grim and we regularly saw taxis ferrying folks ahead....that´s cheating, but that´s Spain.

We got into Palas de Rei at about 2 pm and enjoyed our "well done" beers with a retired German guy who worked for the German foreign service.  He lived in Remagen on the Rhine now but had several overseas postings during his career.  An excellent way to pass the afternoon.

We were only 70 km from Santiago and should be there in four days.

Looks like we´re gonna make it!!