O Cebreiro to Sarria

Galicia is paradise, and we ended up doing nearly two stages in one day just because we wanted to beat the threat of another hot day. Myself and a couple others from our group left together in the darkness. The fog was so dense and thick that our headlamps could barely illuminate the way directly in front of us.

It was a little creepy hiking through the forest with the fog and trees. We stopped by a statue dedicated to the pilgrims at the top of another mountain, it was an eerie sight seeing it rise out of the darkness. Two more towns came and went in the darkness: Hospital de la Condesa and Padornelo. No lights were on, too early for them. Passing cars reminded us where the road was.

As the sun rose the clouds ahead of us became light gray at first, then bright white, and finally pinks followed. The clouds behind us burned as if they were on fire. We made it to Alto do Poio for rest and food. They had a super huge dog that begged us for attention, which I obliged. It laid its massive paw on my arm until I fed it some table scraps, or at least I would have if the owner hadn't called it away.

Crissi and Mauro fell into deep conversation and I fell behind as I stopped to take pictures of the cloud subversion. I saw some of the most beautiful trees, stones, moss and fog landscapes as I descended alone down the mountain.

Amazingly we arrived at Triacastela before noon! Sadly, the three castles here are no more. While we ate breakfast we collectively decided to keep going since there wasn't really anything of interest in this town, and we would have gone crazy staying here having arrived so early in the day. Luckily the others in our group behind us felt the same seeing as they ended up in Sarria as well.

During our breakfast we befriended Eileen from New Zealand, whom spoke near perfect Spansih (even Crissi was impressed), and she walked the rest of the way with us down the mountain. Crissi and Mauro were flying down the second mountain, I couldn't believe how fast they were going. I tried my best to keep up. But halfway down I pulled something, and ended up inflaming a tendon in my ankle.

Luis met up with us at some point as we began the walk in to Sarria. I used my trekking poles as makeshift crutches and hobbled the rest of the way. Before we ascended the stairs into the city, we stopped for a compression sock and pain cream at the pharmacy for my tendon. Big thanks to Crissi for translating and helping to explain what was wrong.

We found a cute Alburgue a stretch of the main road around 5pm, and felt relieved to have a nice place to spend the night. The showers even had privacy! We made another family dinner while watching the Nigeria and Argentina soccer game.

Sarria is the starting point for those who can only take a week of vacation off to do the Camino, which means it's not much farther now.