Day 25: Triacastela – Sarria

Tuesday 21 April 2009
Via SAN CRISTOBO – SAMOS – RIO ORIBIO – FONTAN – SAVIL A VEIGA – PERROS

Approx 25km

What a horrific struggle of a day.

I had been up all night with a belly ache and a bad case of the nasty stuff, thanks to eating some dodgy chorizo that had spent waaaay too long in my backpack the day before. All I wanted was to stay in bed all day and not do anything, so it was very hard to get going. Thank God we had decided to walk as a group today – Rebecca, Jon, Jeff and Megan, which was great for motivation. I couldn’t have asked for more supportive people! If I had have been alone I think I might have sat on the side of the road and cried!

It was a really hard 10km slog to Samos, which is famous for its enormous Benedictine Monastery. We had a choice of two routes this morning, and we chose this particular route specifically for the Monastery – but after a 3 hour trek to get there we were all dying for a drink. We sat down in the sunshine out the front of a little bar and had cups of tea….and completely forgot to visit the Monastery!

Somewhere along the way today we experienced a lovely, childish moment which momentarily took my mind off feeling sick. We were walking through a field when we came across a bridge with a rushing stream beneath it. Jon suggested a game of ‘Pooh Sticks’ (named so after the Winnie the Pooh story books). We all found a stick and threw it into the river on one side of the bridge and the raced to the other side to see whose stick would be the first to appear under the bridge. It’s great that the simplest things in life can so often be the best. In case you’re wondering, Jeff won, I was a close second!

From Samos, it was a super hard 15km up and down, up and down – it almost killed me! I couldn’t have been happier to see Sarria – I think I almost cried tears of joy! We stayed in a great Albergue with fantastic facilities – it was someone’s home, and there was huge with two big dorm rooms at the front of the massive house, big kitchen with all the fittings and a lovely back yard with a dining room and its own prayer room complete with huge wood fire. On top of the dining room and prayer room was an area decked out with sun lounges and clothes line. It was luxury for us humble pilgrims!

I immediately jumped into the shower and went to bed for 3 hours – and I would have happily stayed there all night. I have never been as sore as I was on this day - feet, legs, back…Oh the pain! It felt like someone had put bricks in my backpack. I was so lucky that my wonderful friends took such good care of me. I lagged behind for most of the day, but around every corner, someone was hanging back waiting for me to make sure I was ok.

When we got the Albergue, we all threw our washing in and Jon and Rebecca took care of it. Megan cooked an amazing feast for our dinner – pork, Spanish tortilla and salad. It was so good, especially considering I hadn’t eaten all day! It had been a warm day – about 27 degrees, so I think I also had a touch of heat stroke and hadn’t had enough water during the day. What a tragic case I was!

After dinner, the owner of the home invited us into the prayer room, holding a big bottle of Liquor De Herbos in his hand, so we all sat down around the fire for a little while drinking the good stuff before heading to bed. We were sharing the Albergue with a large group of teenagers – a school group who were completing this final leg of the Camino. We would see them along the rest of the way to Santiago, which was lots of fun. What a great school experience for them – although one which they probably didn’t appreciate at the time!