The Way | Jenny and Stephen's Travel Adventure

Camino – Palas de Rei (Day 29)

Date: Wed 5th June
Distance: 25 km
Temperature: Warm/Hot
Mood: Uplifted
Left: Portomarín 8:00am
Arrived: Palas de Rei 3:00pm
Santiago de Composela: 68 km
Highlight: The Beauty of Galacia

An earlish start for us as we headed off in a thick fog that enveloped the countryside. We imaged witches and goblins lurking in the forests as we passed through them. Within a couple of hours the fog magically evaporated and we were immersed in full sunshine and treated as always to a Camino full of little surprises and pleasant walking trails.

The path took us through many small rural hamlets with farmers going about their business, dogs and chooks aplenty and with the usual Spanish grandma shuffling about, but always with a friendly greeting as you passed them by.

Plenty more Cafes are open to service the growing number of pilgrims and always draw you in with the temptation of food and coffee, but also the buzz from what can be large gatherings of fellow pilgrims in lovely outdoor settings.

Whilst the day was a decent walk (in terms of distance) and the sun has the tendency to zap energy from you, we both dealt with it surprisingly well. As always, the last 5 km is the most challenging physically and mentally, but before we knew it we had arrived and our accommodation was in plain view from entering the town, saving us from digging into our reserves to hunt down our room for the night!

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Camino – Portomarín (Day 28)

Date: Tue 4th June
Distance: 22 km
Temperature: Warm/Hot
Mood: Cheerful
Left: Sarria 8:45am
Arrived: Portomarín 2:45pm
Santiago de Composela: 93 km
Highlight: Jenny in shorts!

As previously warned, the Camino trail does get busier from Sarria, this becomes more apparent when nature calls!

Again, the scenery doesn’t disappoint and we were again blessed with a sunny warm day in a region known for its high rain fall. The trail is typically lined with moss covered stacked stone walls and plenty of greenery. The birds were particularly chatty and provided a good sound track whilst we walked.

We passed through plenty of little hamlets most with appealing Cafes tempting us for a break. We finally succumbed for a nice cold icy Coke.

It wasn’t long before we could see the township of Portomarín, a lovely town which overlooks a large reservoir. The town itself was quite lively with many pilgrims enjoying the sun, eating and drinking.

Only 4 more days of walking, we have now passed the 100 km marker… perhaps we are getting a little sad as our journey draws to a close.

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Camino – Sarria (Day 27)

Date: Mon 3rd June
Distance: 0 km (Rest Day)
Temperature: Warm
Mood: Relaxed
Santiago de Composela: 115 km
Highlight: Jenny’s Birthday

The weather hasn’t disappointed for a relaxing rest day to celebrate Jenny’s birthday! What better way than to start the day with a buffet hotel breakfast. No need to eat for the rest of the day!

As always with rest days, it’s a good opportunity to catch up on some domestics, but we also needed to get new pilgrim passports (Credentials), as we had completely filled our original credentials with Sello’s (pilgrim stamps). So we headed for the 13th century Monastery for a new set. The Monastery is still in operation and part of the building has recently been refurbished and also accommodates pilgrims as an Albergue.

We also enjoyed a pleasant stroll around town which we finished off with gelato’s in the afternoon sun (we needed to try the Spanish Gelato’s so we can make an informed comparison when we get to Italy! – Anne, you better not disappoint!)

We are hoping to stow our wet weather gear at the bottom of our backpacks (probably wishful thinking in this region of Spain) as we head off on the final leg of our Camino.