Day 31 - Sarria to Portomarin

 

More pilgrims on the trail now that we're within the last 100km.

Today was one of our best so far. The temperature was good (cool), the surfaces were good and the slopes weren't too vertical. Even with two leisurely coffee stops we managed to keep an average of more than 4km/h.

Pancakes with banana and chocolate sauce.

We started the day with the best breakfast yet, thanks to Marcela at Casona de Sarria. As well as the usual coffee, juice and toast, she brought out a dish of freshly scrambled eggs, followed by pancakes with hot chocolate sauce. All the little dishes of preserves to put on the toast were home-made. She tried to insist on us having more of everything and we staggered out on to the street absolutely stuffed. It reminded me of a little Monty Python clip, which my brother Philip will recall. I was going to post it here, but it's too disgusting.

Pilgrims follow us across the first bridge out of Sarria.

We hit the road at about the usual time of 7.30am, prepared for far more people. It didn't take long. At the first bridge there was an excited group of more than a dozen loudly getting their photos taken as they set off out of town. We hurried past their clean shoes, anxious to make distance between us and the loud talking.

A strange twist to the day.

It was a delightful day for walking, very scenic and cool. After about 8km we weren't bothered by many other walkers at all. In fact, we hadn't seen a trail marker either for a bit. We checked the Camino app and found we were off the path by about a kilometre. We could see the road to take to get us back on track, but when we got to the next corner there was a way marker. From then on we found markers frequently and within a couple more kilometres we were back on the main track.

We'd enjoyed our foray into the wilderness, taking us into some very scenic spots. It was obvious from some sections of the track that not many people had walked this way, as the grass was growly strongly and there were few fresh footprints in the mud.

Soon after we rejoined the main trail, at about 10am, we stopped for a coffee. We saw a couple of people ahead of us who we'd previously walked past, but apparently, we had only walked a few hundred extra metres.

Time passed quickly and we were setting a cracking pace. At 10.48am we entered the town of Mirallos, with the proud claim of being positioned 100km from the zero-kilometre spot in the plaza outside the cathedral in Santiago de Compostela.

Another coffee stop at 11.45am at Moutras. This was very upmarket. In addition to my cafe can leche and Cathie's cortado (a very strong microscopic dose of caffeine), we indulged in a tortilla and an empanada, which we shared and called lunch.

Cathie asked at the counter what these structures were. We'd been seeing them all day. My theory was that they were small family mausoleums, but the explanation was that they were for storing corn on the cob. We weren't sure that it was worth all that trouble, but we peered into one and sure enough, there was corn in there.

On the other hand, this one was definitely for bodies.

It didn't seem to take long before we sighted Portomarin. 

It was a fairly steep descent to the bridge, built high above the old Roman bridge when the river was dammed way back in 1962.

Our hotel is nice, although the wifi is crap. We've had a siesta and a walk around town and I'm growing increasingly frustrated by the time it's taking to write this between wifi failures.

So here's today's Relive video: 

https://www.relive.cc/view/vevYoA1rMJ6

Today's musical guest appearance is from our sister-in-law Deb from Toronto. Deb gave us three options. We loved all of them, but this is the one Cathie chose: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZiRba7-F7M

Today's photos: https://photos.app.goo.gl/5QrkH5arnosTcroC9