Day 26

Day 26 and we are holed up in a town called Sarria in Galicia. The last 6 days have been continuous walking, between 25 - 35km per day, including passing over the mountains between Villafranca in Castilla y Leon and O Cebrerio in Galicia.

{From here}

This was to be our hardest day but we were both surprised how easy it was {My apologies to David and Nora who had found it to be the most difficult stage, but bear in mind that we took we took a rest day in Astorga!}. The trail climbs from about 500m up to a height of 1,300m at the end of a 30km hike through a river valley, which sounds harder than it actually is. The scenery through the valley was amazing and the final push to the top wasn't too difficult, probably owing to our 3 years of hiking mountains in Korea.

The weather is definitely as lot colder and wetter in Galicia, more in tune with Ireland than Spain. Today is our final planned rest day before we hike the final 5 days to Santiago. We are both in good shape, Anna's blisters are getting better, there hasn't been a bed bug attack in a few days and I've thankfully not had any cramping of late. Both of us do have stomach bugs however, so the rest day is definitely well timed! Neither of us have any appetites which is a bit of a problem when we need to be taking on at least 3000 calories per day while walking! Last night we stayed in a fantastic albergue in a private house called Don Alvaro. Tonight we will probably stay in a private room however, to make sure we get a proper nights rest before tomorrow.

Yesterday's walk from Tricastella to Sarria was spectacular, starting off through a river valley and passing through abandoned hamlets perched on hillsides. Sarria itself is a bit of a one horse town, the only reason it is popular is because it is 117km from Santiago. In order to get your compostella, certificate of completion in Santiago, you have to have walked at least the final 100km. Thus the town is full of scout groups, church groups and other ne'er do wells. Full of first day enthusiasm they all woke up a 5am this morning, fumbling around in the dark, trying to pack their bags, while veterans like Anna and I looked on in dozy amusement!

Fingers crossed our bugs will be gone today, we'll have a big dinner and be on our way tomorrow, arriving in Santiago on the 14th.

Hasta luego