Camino: Triacastela to Sarria

Pazo "Torre del Barrio"

A relatively late start this morning, with breakfast not until 8:30 a.m.  The luxury is tempered, however, by the need to do some journal keeping as well as to get the laundry out by 8 a.m.  Breakfast began promptly and again featured muesli and 100 percent milk, real butter and jams for the bread, plus cheese and “membrillo,”  as well as coffee and freshly squeezed orange juice.  Spain does produce its own oranges, of course.

There is a old dog and a rabbit in the front yard.  The dog sort of lies there and says “Woof” in a lackadaisical way, once in a while, and the rabbit keeps on eating, unimpressed by the dog.  I’m wondering if that rabbit might be lunch or dinner for hotel guests one day.

This is kind of a confusing day, because there is a choice of two routes between Triacastela and Sarria, and because we are doubling back to Triacastela to start our morning trek, but that means driving westward to Sarria before we turn east to Triacastela, even though Sarria is our eventual afternoon destination.

Skies are kind of grey and it’s cool (65˚ perhaps?) as we unload in Triacastela and start down the street and over to a path that winds through fields past more cows.  This part of Galicia has always produced a lot of milk and milk products, and as one farmer told me curtly later in the day, “There are no grapes around here!” (I had hoped he was pulling a grape wagon with his tractor, but it was a manure wagon.)  In fact, today we saw the “Gallega rubia” or “Galician blonde” cows and Holsteins, rather than the Charleroi that we’d seen before in Bierzo.

At a wide spot in the road, and deep in the dark woods, at a place called “A Balsa” we encounter the Englishman named Art, in his little stone studio beside the path.  There is a cross on the roof and a sign in the door (in Spanish, English and French) about praying, and Art does give out pilgrim stamps. But when pressed, he admits that it is not and never has been a church.

Soon, after a particularly steep phase, we are at the Scallop Shell Fountain, a rather uninspired concrete water spout and grimy, algae-covered pool.  This was added beside the Camino in the 1980’s.  But, it is a good place to stop and drink some of the water we brought with us – Alex loaned me some as I forgot to tank up this morning – because we’ve been climbing steadily all the way.

Now the ascent levels out a little and we get into more open territory.  Instead of huffing and puffing, we can talk and look around at the cattle grazing in the pastures.  Sometimes there is a large shepherd-like dog, standing guard on the cattle, like a lone sentry.

Casa do Franco

Finally, we surmount Alto de Riocabo and find the bus with Alex and Celso.  I filled my water bottle.  From here, the descent begins across gently rolling terrain, with cattle and pastures on each side. I talked for a time with a New Zealand girl who teaches school and is using her vacation time to walk the Camino from Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port.  Later there is a Welshman who got laid off from his job (“made redundant”).  His wife – who has done parts of the Camino herself – told him to walk the Camino and get his head straightened out.  So that’s why he is here.  They both drop off for lunch in Casa do Franco, a spot where we use the “aseos” (with Julia Roberts’ photo on the ladies room door) and some get a stamp in our passports.

Lunch is found not far below us, at Calvor, or just a kilometer beyond the 117.5 kilometer marker.  John, who always gets to every destination first, walked right by the luncheon spot and had to be retrieved by Alex from somewhere halfway to Sarria.  Cate has done another marvelous job of preparing a Spanish lunch of a rice, almonds, and craisins with basil, cumen, and other spices, a green lettuce salad with avocado and tomatoes, slices of “lomo” and cheese, and strawberries and cookies. We eat well. 

At 2:10 p.m. we’re back on the trail, and again headed down.  We walk past the traffic circle near our hotel, the Pazo Torre de Barrio, and continue toward Sarria. Joe and I walked this together and it was a relatively level and easy going along the highway into town.  It was about 3 p.m. when we arrived in Sarria, so the city was shut down and quiet. 

Following the yellow markers, as well as the pilgrim symbols engraved into the sidewalks, we came to the modern Alfonso IX Hotel in the  middle of town, very near the river.  We got there about 3:15 p.m. after four hours and five minutes of walking a distance that totaled 11.5 miles today.  There was an attractive-looking outdoor cafe across the river under the shade trees, but others had already settled into the hotel’s patio for a beer, so Joe and I joined them.  Pat Brown soon left to run back to the hotel. He and Maria are getting the Energizer Bunny award on this trip.  Leslie sprained an ankle yesterday trying to keep up with them.

We captured Celso as he dropped off the shoppers (bound for the shoe store) and got him to take us back to the Pazo Torre del Barrio at four o’clock rather than waiting for the planned five o’clock trip back from town.  Now we’ve showered and are ready to depart to the monastery for vespers, mass and dinner in Samos.

The vespers service in the sturdy stone Benedictine monastery in Samos turned out to be a mass, with no singing and just gospels and communion.  No one can explain why the normal vespers service did not occur as scheduled and as it usually does.  I am reminded of the time we drove all the way to Santo Domingo de Silos for the Gregorian chants, only to discover it was an “away game” for the monks that day.

  San Xulián de Samos

After walking around the monastery just to appreciate its size (big), we continued down the street to a large restaurant overlooking the Sarria river.  We had our usual briefing about the next day’s activities (we will walk from Sarria to Portomarin, about 23.5 kilometers), followed by dinner.  There were lots of choices, and I had the oyster mushrooms with bacon followed by grilled small squid (chipirones) and a dessert called “pastel de cuajada” – really good!  Alex and I agreed the first white wine served was below standard, so he ordered a Godello.  Very nice and a grape that, he said, is becoming more and more popular.  The firm Martin Codax is now shipping it to the U.S. market.

Samos: the Benedictine monastery