The Way of Saint James via Camino Francè

Day 42 – Samos to Sarria

This is a real oxcart west of Samos, probably dating back to the 1600’s, beautifully restored by a farmer that couldn’t stand to see it rotting away in some old barn.

The path to Sarria today is about 17 kilometers.  That’s about 21,250 steps. Getting to be a normal day for us. Today’s trek will take us through more of that dark, dank, forest that gives rise to the witch legends. It’s easy to see why. The forest trails are narrow, bordered by huge trees gnarled by age creating creepy grottos and dark passages. Many mossy stone buildings lay in unusually hard to get to places near the trail. Maybe hundreds of years ago these were bright, airy farm houses.

But now in near ruin and often covered in vines they just create foreboding in even the heartiest of pilgrims. The above photo is me being not hearty. I really don’t want to go this way even though the yellow arrows say to.  Well, it was just as spooky as it looked. And the old stone ruins looked like witch haunts.

The aged, gnarly trees sometimes looked ominous with shapes out of Grimms Fairy Tales. Hansel and Grettle often came to mind.

We walked that path. Maybe the creepiest place on earth.  There were several holes I guess you’d say in the stony banks on either side of the trail with vines hanging down over the entrances. Large enough for ogres or trolls to crawl out of. Nancy scared me silly when she screamed behind me. It was just a snake crossing the trail between us. The trail wound up and down and around never letting you see far ahead. Anything could be lurking unseen yet very close by.

The trail broke out into wide open sunshine some kilometers out of Sarria.  It was a long but mild downhill into the edge of town. Then it was up and the urban path was poorly marked. Following the arrows pilgrims found themselves in a pasture next to the Rio Sarria surrounded by geese. The only way out was to climb over a high wooden fence. Not easy with a loaded backpack and trekking poles but we and others managed. Then it was a continuous climb to the town center.  When we located our Hostal we were faced with a long flight of concrete steps that rose at least 60 feet.

Our lodging is the yellow building at the top. On checking in we were guided up three stories of stairs to our room. No elevator.  We showered and had pilgrim supper, then Mass with a pilgrim blessing.

Pilgrim suppers are a real thing.  Almost any restaurant or albergue offers pilgrim suppers which have a limited menu but are relatively inexpensive at €9 to €12 each. Almost always with a full bottle of wine and a big basket of bread. We often start out without breakfast and have just snacks or fruit for lunch so that’s really our only meal of the day.

Tomorrow will be a special day for us.  By the end of the day we will be less than 100 km from Santiago de Compostela.

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Day 41 – O Biduedo to Samos

We opted for the Samos route to Sarria. Sarria being where half of the pilgrims start their walk. This path is 4 km longer but avoids the quicker highway route. It winds through some of the most beautiful mountain meadows you’ll ever see. And also through some of the most dismal forests on earth. These forests are so eerie it’s easy to see why Galicia has legends dating from time out of mind regarding witches, good and bad.

Well, this is a good place to comment on the cell service ever since we entered Galicia. Spotty is the best description and weak is the next best. I just lost 30 minutes of writing due to that and the difficulty of editing a website with a touchscreen cellphone when the editor doesn’t know what to do with finger swipes on the screen. Here in Samos, a relatively large village, not quite a town, the cell signal is still very weak.

So for this post I’ll just stick in a couple more photos and call it quits saving myself much frustration.

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Day 40 – O Cebreiro to O Biduedo
O Cebreiro is a jewel. It’s our first glimpse of Galicia and it’s unique history and customs. Galicia is Celtic in origin having much in common with the old Nordic Kingdoms. The language is Galaga, a mix of Galicia and Spanish. Doesn’t make much difference to me because I can’t understand it any less than plain Spanish. The above photo is Nancy walking past a Poloza which is a rounded stone structure with a grass thatch roof used to store vegetables and equipment; sometimes as a barn at the same time. These are found only in Galicia. Also Galician is a soup made of beans, kohlrabi, and potatoes. Very good. Also since Galicia is somewhat square it has two sides to the Atlantic Ocean. Seafood, especially squid and octopus are common foods here. They can keep the octopus but the soup is delicious.

Our walk to O Biduedo was beautifully scenic. The valleys and hills were stunning. Every curve in the path brought new delights such as cattle and sheep grazing on impossibly steep pastures.  The Way in Galicia so far has the best and smoothest trails we’ve seen. We made it to O Biduedo before we knew it. We had just walked along soaking up the sights without thought of how far we had yet to go.

Its funny (odd) that O Biduedo doesn’t show up on Google Maps. Even knowing where it is supposed to be I can’t get Google to either locate it with a search or just find it by zooming into the location where it has to be. Well it isn’t much of a village, just a couple of buildings and streets covered with cow and sheep poop. But some of these buildings are a couple of centuries old at least.  Our favorite building here was an old stone Chapel converted to who knows what. I’ll end this days post with Nancy standing in its doorway.

View more photos from week 6