Camino de Santiago from Sarria to Portomarin: A Pilgrim’s Diary

The first act of the day was to pay my respects to the breakfast buffet, which had quite a good variety of ham and chorizo as well as different sweets which all demanded my attention.

Way too full for walking, we got ready for the second and bigger act of the day: to fix our walking sticks. Amateur pilgrims like us had managed to pull one of them apart before even starting the walk when trying to pull them open. What was left were two pieces which didn’t go together anymore.

Luckily, we had seen a trekking shop on the stairs of A Escaleira da Maior. It was already 9:30 am and they had just opened. What we had tried in vain for at least 20 min, the guy there could fix in 30 seconds. Additionally, he showed us that we had put the caps at the end of the stick upside down and also adjusted the height of the sticks for us. Slightly embarrassed we left the shop.

We should’ve asked him to adjust our backpacks as well but we were a bit too embarrassed for that 😀 We’d never worn them and had no clue about anything except my knowledge that the weight should be on the waist and not the shoulders. In retrospect, I think “why didn’t you just google it?”. But that wouldn’t have been half the fun I guess ^_^

Now it was time to get our first stamp in our pilgrim pass. The only problem: The church was closed. Now what? We went to the next bar in the hope that they could tell us what to do. Instead of an answer, we received a stamp. Turns out that all restaurants, albuerges, hotels, panaderias, pulperias etc. have stamps as well, all with their own name and design. So instead of a church, we got our first stamp at a bar. We should’ve had a vino tinto right away to celebrate it!

We went up the same way we walked the day before as the Rue Maior is directly on the Camino. On top, just before the castelo at the church, we saw a pilgrim filling his water bottle at a fountain. We had read that it’s usually not save to drink this kind of water but it had a clear plaque for drinking water and the guy seemed to know what he’s doing. Since we hadn’t got the chance to buy water before and didn’t want to walk all the way to a supermarket, this was the perfect opportunity for us to get some. If we end up dying, we’d at least know why.

We had bought two water bags for our backpacks since the for lay-women very competent sounding guy at Decathlon told us it’s the most practical thing to have. It actually is – IF you know how to use it. That was one of our lessons for today. 1. Filling it – easy. 2. How to put it in the bag correctly – … took till day two (again: We should’ve simply googled it.) 3. How to drink from it – took half an hour or more. I had almost given up and started preparing myself mentally to die from thirst when all of a sudden it started working. Don’t ask what I did wrong though…

At the fountain we met a German lady from Sachsen, who had made it all the way over snowy mountains for 600 km only to hurt her leg 150 km before Santiago, unable to walk. That sucks! But that’s the Camino… Her story was quite funny: she did the trip with her husband but they split up when she got injured. They realized only afterward that their SIM cards didn’t work so they were unable to keep in touch. And then they randomly met again at exactly this fountain in Sarria.

Anyways, we left the wondrous fountain and reached the old monastery which is now an Albergue.

From there it’s only a short way to the Ponte da Áspera from where one of the loveliest parts of the journey starts. It’s the perfect mix of forests, fields, and uncountable beautiful avenues. The first stretch is around 1 hr from Sarria over Vilei to Barbadelo. Since it was our first day and our pilgrim pass looked way too empty, we got a stamp from almost every place we passed by. From Barbadelo another 2 hrs through fields and small villages with stone-built houses like Peruscallo, A Brea (the first of I don’t know how many on the way!) to Ferreiros. We stopped at the Panaderia Peruscallo where I had a slice of pizza and, of course, a forbidden coke. Forbidden, because I had instructed Mom to be as strict as possible and keep me from having any sweets and coke (Coke addict speaking). After discovering the Tarta de Santiago, the sweet rule was quickly forgotten and only had to focus on the Coke. But what a rookie mistake: why would you give ME the money and let ME buy the snacks? As if I would follow my own rules 😀

At A Pena, close to Ferreiros, we found the 100 km stone! We almost thought we missed it because in our guide it was written that it was at some other place which we’ve crossed already. What an amazing feeling it must be when you walk all the way from St. Jean and you know Santiago is finally within reach!

The last stretch to Portomarin was a b**** though, starting around Moimentos. The sun burned down, open, never-ending fields without shadow, only asphalt roads to walk on… and since it was the first day and our legs were not used to it, it was even harder.

For everyone who wants to follow our example: Before you cross the bridge to Portomarin, don’t forget to go slightly further to the photo point. From there you get the best view. My feet hurt so much at this point of time, I didn’t want to get up from there ever again.

After crossing the bridge, one big hurdle awaited us: stairs. My one and only thought was “WTH, NO! No way I’m doing this!!”. A subtle way of Portomarin telling us pilgrims to FO? Who knows.