Our tall and friendly Dutch companions who were sharing our dormitory in San Marmede, didn’t seem to have any problems getting up when the alarms went off. They stepped off their top bunks like gazelles!
I had slept fitfully, but was determined that with only a week of Camino to go, I was finally going to triumph over my 9 month insomnia before I returned home. This meant deciding not to switch on my phone (to write my blog) during the night!
We were in a spacious room with 8 bunk beds. 7 were occupied this night. We also had an en suite bathroom! So, coordinating ablutions was fairly easy. It felt like the height of luxury.
Breakfast was a simple DIY affair…toast with butter, until we remembered the homemade chilli and garlic oil, which we then poured liberally over our toast! Irresistible!
Today we planned to walk over 30km. The sun was shining. We felt rejuvenated after our wonderful stay at San Marmade, with yoga, sunshine, full laundry, fine food, wine, games, and clean facilities. We were feeling good! Imagine my disappointment, when within minutes of departure, I felt a sudden return of my shin splint pain!
I went back to making my stork movements, standing on one leg, and slowly turning my ankle to relieve the cramping sensation. It was a slow start to the day.
The first proper stop was in a little supermercado on the outskirts of Sarría, where we stocked up on supplies. My special treat today was a bag of Haribo sour jelly sweets, called Tangfastics.
Haribo Tangfastics had been a source of great addiction and joy for both Gordon and me. It was amusing for me to find someone who had an even greater passion for them than me, but Gordon also had the ability to eat them twice as fast! Together, we would inhale them!
But when we realised his cancer was spreading, and after discovering that sugar will propagate cancer cells faster than anything, I was compelled to stop all of our Haribo consumption.
Until today in Sarría.
It has been well over a year since my last Haribo purchase, and as soon as I’d paid, the bag was opened and the contents were devoured, before we’d even left the shop!
We spent some time in Sarría, drinking coffee and fresh orange juice. We passed some strange hollow Gaudi-like monuments that were too irresistible not to climb inside. We also stopped in the monastery for our first “stamp” of the day.
The town felt busy with pilgrims who we didn’t recognise. Until now, as pilgrims, you would recognise each other along the way, mainly because numbers were less. But because pilgrims are still eligible to receive their Compostela when starting in Sarría, the swell in numbers was tangibly more…possibly up to ten times more. Another consideration was that from today onwards, we had to collect two “stamps” a day in our Compostela passports, rather than just the one.
There is no denying it, the heavy pilgrim traffic bothered us. We started calling them “part time pilgrims”. They were instantly recognisable, most wearing light day sacs, some carrying nothing at all. Their clothing was also different. They travelled in larger groups, often college groups or school children. But the biggest annoyance for us, was that all the cafés, rest stops and ultimately the albergues, were now filling up.
Today’s excitement was that my “Barr treasure trail” was beginning. We would be passing the 100km marker where my first clue was “you’re a nut”. The number of distance markers had increased and they appeared every kilometre, sometimes even marking the half kilometre!
I wasn’t sure if this was better or worse, as the last couple of kms to the 100k marker felt long.
The anticipation was high as I approached, wondering if my “nut” would still be there four or five days after the Barrs had left it. I was overcome with joy to find a walnut in exactly the spot that Lucas had been pointing at in the picture clue, inscribed with the words “GOOD LUCK SU-A!! XXX THE BARRS”
Su-a Lee
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