The Grass is greener .....

Day 5 on the Camino and now on foot.

A 23km walk from Sarria to Portomarin.

Where would you like to travel?  Canada, Norway, Finland, Dominica, Australia or the States

Virginia, North Carolina or maybe even Hawaii?  Well I met folks from all those places  today, had breakfast with most of them.

All live in beautiful places yet all shared a desire to walk the Camino. All though had walked pretty far already but they did seem a happy and relatively pain free crowd so perhaps today would not be so bad.

Naively, before leaving UK I had thought that the recommendation to bring a head torch was for emergencies if the day's walk ended up being slower than planned - we've  all been there!

My experience with "Super Gran" had though already taught me differently but it still did seem strange setting off at 8 this morning in total darkness along with others

Artist's impression

all looking like overloaded  miners in a  Norman Cornish painting.

And there were quite a few others. As I've said, Saria is the nearest reasonably big town to the 100km minimum limit to get the Camino certificate so softies like me set off from here.

Mind you, judging by the weight of my rucksack - more  about that later and yes I do need all those toiletries, I'm worth it - I won't be a softy for long.

By the time it began to get light the marker
posts were showing

114km to Santiago, I really was on my way.

And what a way, as both I and the day woke up sights like this appeared and  I  realised why people come here.

We are lucky to be able to experience it from our relatively privileged  home backgrounds though aren't we,

I don't suppose  these two ladies enjoy early mornings as much  - but perhaps they do.






When on the bike I  had seen how people living on the Camino had understandably taken advantage of literally a "passing trade" but had thought that more in the provision of accommodation.  On foot I realised that there were opportunitiesas for really small, personal enterprises.

And I've never been one to pass up the offer of home made cake!



And any way,  this proved to be a scientifically acceptable way of solving an issue with my my rucksack. Advice was that it shouldn't weigh more than 10 percent of your body weight. I really had tried go get my pack weight down without success. Makes sense then to increase your body weight - home made cake, sorted!

And half way on today's route another opportunity ...

And Froggy was happy enough ...

Actually feeling

like I can do this now, and only 100km to go, cracked it


And still plenty to see ....

Til now I've had nothing but praise for the planners of the route but as with most organisations there's always someone who is having such a hard time in their own lives that they feel duty bound to really dump grief on others. So it must have been with the guy in charge of the Pilgrim's entrance to Portomarin,  the end of today's  section

- after 23km, you must be joking.   Have a nice day ....