Today was a beautiful walk from Biduedo (population maybe 5) to Sarria (pop, c.13,000). I walked along with Heather, from Toronto, who I had met back in Molinaseca and who, despite being about a quarter of my size, is carrying a heavier rucksack than me and can walk at my pace. Pretty impressive. The day started off well when this little chap appeared. You can see that he is changing colour, part green and part grey, to blend into his background. Later a blue-headed lizard made an appearance.
Multi-coloured lizard
But nothing could have prepared one for this a mile or so later.
The hills of Galicia, seemingly floating on the clouds. I just looked at this and said wow. Again, as so often on the. Camino, the beauty of what one sees is almost unreal. If you saw a painting of this, you’d think it was just a fantasy picture.
A bit Irish
One can also see the strong Celtic influence in Galician art. The above is a madonna in a pretty Romanesque church in Triacastela. One can see the statue is pure Irish and could be in Cork. Also in Triacastela, ran into phone-less Sharon (she turned 70 on the Camino) and again at her request sent her son a message, this time to wish him Happy Mothers Day. The North Americans seem to celebrate Mothers Day at some odd time of the year. I suspect that the son is going to get increasingly worried by these messages and I’m going to start getting return messages such as “keep away from my mom, punk”.
There were a lot of un-warned hills today and in particular some of those long climbs up roads where there is a bend at the top of the hill, one gets to the bend and then guess what? Another stretch of hill. Lunch was in a valley being watched by a small herd of cattle including a 1 ton bull separated from pilgrims by an electric fence plugged into a small car battery which would not have slowed him down for a second if he decided to charge.
On a less aesthetic note, I’m afraid that my uneven tan is looking increasingly mad. Those black socks aren’t helping.
Comedy tan
The destination tonight was Sarria. Stayed in a nice hotel but unfortunately the town centre was up a steep flight of stairs. Both Heather and I found the whole concept of walking up stairs tricky at the end of the day. Still, found a nice restaurant and met with pilgrims, including one Eastern European who was starting in Sarria armed with flip-flops, no money but had a boardgame in her rucksack.
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