Triacastela to Barbadelo, 29km

Another day of beautiful countryside and another day of rain … and oddly enough, the two worked together remarkably well.  

I left Triacastela this morning fully suited up for a day of rain and wasn’t disappointed. It ranged from being quite heavy to a fine mist, but was definitely a constant for the day.  I think after yesterday I had my head around the fact that I would still survive if the extremities were damp for the day (it is still relatively warm) so was happy to just roll with it and enjoy the day. 

In fact I even opted to take the extended option on today’s route – following the more scenic paths through the mountains to visit the Benedictine monastery at Samos. Both the route and the monastery were beautiful and it was definitely the right decision – despite the fact that having covered almost 30kms today, only 11kms seem to have come off the waymarkers. D’oh! 

Still, wouldn’t have changed a thing about today. The paths went through beautifully lush and overgrown woodlands that reminded me of England (particularly as it was dripping with rain) – tiny wildflowers, deep green moss and beautiful spring growth on the trees … all contributing to a thousand shades of green and just a beautiful (dripping) day. 

About a half hour into the morning I met up with a Norwegian guy who we worked out was born in the same month as my dad (nine days younger).  Apparently I still haven’t learned my lesson as I initially tried to shake him off before getting into an intriguing conversation about his working life as CEO of a Scandinavian ferry company and how he had introduced completely revolutionary technology to make the ferries the most environmentally friendly in the world. This of course turned into a wider conversation about environmental issues (Ian will be pleased to hear his wife still has to nag him to recycle) and the time flew. I was in fact quite disappointed when we parted ways in Samos as I needed to stop for breakfast. 

 I hit quite a large town called Sarria early afternoon and was contemplating calling it a day.  However, about half an hour through its very ugly outskirts, I caught one of my walking poles in a storm drain and lost the rubber stopper off the end. It is hard to explain how annoyed I was at the thought of having to put up with the clicking sound of my pole all the way to Santiago and I decided there and then that I hated Sarria and was pushing on through.  But of course, the Camino provides and literally four minutes later I came upon a shop called ‘peregrino-teca’ (which I would translate as pilgrim stuff) where they happily sold me a new rubber stopper for all of €1, very amused at how stoked I was with this purchase. 

Still undecided, I stopped in Sarria for a bit of tapas and a sneaky afternoon beer.  And of course, along came another delightful Norwegian. I am still not sure of this chap’s name, but know it starts with I, that he is an IT guy living in Copenhagen and that he is a very entertaining walking companion. He also knew of an albergue about 4km further on that had a good reputation (and has turned out to be absolutely genius) so after another quick drink off we went, and now here we all are – my  two Norwegians, a slightly older Danish lady who has hitch-hiked her way around Australia and a trainee yoga instructor from Holland, all chilling in front of an open fire, sharing a bottle of most excellent red wine. Another tough day on the camino!