Camino Day 28, Wednesday, July 2, Triacastella to Sarria

Camino Day 28, Wednesday, July 2, Triacastella to Sarria

Numbers: 10.76 miles per Garmin GPS; 34,604 steps, 125 floors, and 296 active minutes per Fitbit. After we got to our Sarria hotel, I turned the Garmin off as I always do, but we probably walked around three miles more before we could check in. We ate, explored the city - monastery, churches, etc. The high number of floors today was basically out of Triacastella.

And, a few days of the Garmin data for those interested: today, yesterday, and the day before yesterday.

Dave's voice (as if you couldn't tell!)

Another light day with a low expectation of rain that turned into none and comfortable temps as we bid adios to Trickle Seca, a nice little town that will soon be part of the memory blur. Our below-street-level room turned out to be cool enough and quiet enough. We slept well for a change!

The road to Sarria was the usual, with some slippery patches due to rain during the previous night. Lots of cow poop, also not good to slip on. A few of today’s villages are the sort where dairy cattle are driven (I.e., mosey at their own pace) right through the town’s only street. Dairy cows are about as laid-back as any farm animal gets with certain less-than-gentile consequences. Ah, farm land. See cow pictures from yesterday.

We chat with Molly from Hawaii, who went to college in San Diego and has plans of going into some sort of Peaceful International Relations work after she gets her MS. (Note that Peaceful International Relations are not necessarily the same as the Japanese/Mexican version speculated upon at Old Sombrero, though there’s no good reason why both couldn’t apply.) Molly’s traveling with Noam, a guy she met in a class in Nepal. They trekked somewhere near Annapurna, stayed with a “native family” and trekked back as part of their course work. This sounded so great, I wanted to slap both of them for being young, free to do fun things, and utterly untouched by the cares of the world. Well, someone has to study in Nepal.

We also met (I.e., were approached and glommed onto by) Norma, a fiftyish woman from Bermuda who once had some San Diego connection, too. That’s one of the things that happens: people chat and learn that someone else, somewhere else on the same stretch of Camino has a common interest, history, etc. Then they hunt them down. Norma runs a restaurant in Bermuda and couldn’t wait to get away from 300 customers a day. After a few weeks on the road, mostly by herself or with one other peregrino, she seems eager to talk to us, maybe because we don’t have a Nepal story. True, we’re older, but maybe someone who’s lived a while, has raised kids, and probably has had some things go wrong in her life sees us as a bit more like a peer. Okay, she’s bored and we’re better than nothing.

My sense is that the younger pilgrims are more social, more likely to knock back a few cervezas at the end of the day’s leg; the older ones are more likely to hunker down for the afternoon/evening to recuperate. Youth means you never have to recuperate. There’s a clear “singles” vibe to some of the groups and even a little posturing here and there. That’s almost not a criticism. What’s the point of being young and energetic and socially adventurous if you don’t go with it?

Reached Sarria (population 13,000) in good time and, despite a tweaked back, Scout led us uphill to the Magdalena Monastery, one of Sarria’s alleged attractions. Looks old. While there, we bump into Lawrence, the guy from North Carolina and, on the way back to our room, both Norma, and a father and son team from Argentina that we’ve met three or four times before. The dad’s 72, four years older than I am. Jesus H.

Lunch was a slight variant on the pilgrim menu at an Italian place owned by an Italian. The guy kept going on about “this younger generation,” the kind of blow-hard griping that bores me – unless I’m doing it. Good Penne al’Arrabiata, though, and a lot of good Sam Cooke/Motown music in the background. Note to American tourists: You’ll hear a lot of music from home in Spain, but nothing since 1980. Sorry, Rappers.

Sarria is the starting point for a new group of Santiago pilgrims and we see lots of them on the street this afternoon: Short Hoppers. Explaining this term is a little like explaining ultra-marathoning in that so few people participate that it’s all soooo esoteric and inbred. But here goes: Pilgrims walked to Santiago from wherever they happened to start – usually from their homes, which could be hundreds and hundreds of miles away. At some point, someone decided that there should be a certificate given to those who’d completed the trek. This led to the notion that, to be a valid pilgrimage, it had to be a minimum length. After all, a pilgrimage should be more than taking the bus. So: the minimum distance one has to walk to get the certificate is 100 KM, about 62 miles. Sarria, being the closest town (on this version of the route) that’s over 100 KM from Santiago, is full of folks who’ll do the minimum. Short Hoppers. Almost as bad as people who send their packs ahead. :-) Almost. (If any of you saw “The Way,” the Martin Sheen movie about walking the Camino, you might have been confused when, towards the end of the trek, he carried a Louisville Slugger and thwacked numerous other hikers for no apparent reason. These were Short Hoppers and Santiago etiquette permits those who have gone at least 300 KM to clear Short Hoppers off the road. It seems cruel, but it’s why the system works.)

Pictures:

First is of early morning after climb out of Triacastella. Sadly, the caption function doesn't want to cooperate.

Through the woods we go

Camino signs: left and bottom right in Sarria. The top right is a painted yellow arrow on a rock embedded in the ground.

A few of Santa Maria Magdalena Monestary:

Cool Camino Murals in Sarria

Castle in ruins in Sarria. Anyone have some money to renovate?

Couldn't figure out what these were. Ideas?

And, for Lorina and Dr. Bryon: look......just like Lake Miramar

And, one of our post-walk time passers, in addition to reading, eating, drinking wine, sleeping, and that other thing is....drum roll, please....Scrabble...I can actually hold my own with Dave (Dook)...some of the time. Ok, truth be told, I can knock the snot out of him anytime I want. Please keep my secret. (Dave shows me what he's written so I can copy and paste, but I never show him what I've written).

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