Hannah

Hi friends! We are back with some more updates! It’s crazy how up to this point in terms of posts, we have only been walking the Camino for 7 days. The days all seem to blur together and more often than not we can barely remember where we were the day before, or how far we walked. The days all seem to blend and it’s as if we never even stopped walking.

Day 6 of walking took us from Triacastela to Sarria, totalling 20km. Like every other day, it rained, and rained and rained. I carried my son in the backpack carrier again, and we carried on as best we could. When it’s raining it’s hard to stop whenever you feel like it because you don’t want everything to be more exposed by removing your backpack, and you definitely don’t want to put anything down outside, so we patiently waited to find a warm and cozy cafe to get some coffee, feed my son, and take a break. These are always very appreciated stops for us!

We arrived in Sarria exhausted (what’s new) only to find that they gave away our room because they thought we would be arriving earlier. I was definitely not impressed, but they somewhat redeemed themselves by finding us another place to stay. We ended up having the entire building to ourselves, which seemed odd, but we weren’t going to complain. That night out of pure exhaustion neither of us even ate dinner, all we could think about was getting to bed as soon as possible, which we did.

Day 7 of walking was from Sarria to A Pena, totalling 12.8km. Which was a very exciting day because this meant we were exactly 100km away from Santiago!!!! On the Camino you can do it just about any way you want, the only requirement for getting a Compostela (certificate of completion) is that you walk the last 100km of any of the trails leading to Santiago. Because of this, Sarria is a very very popular starting point for people who don’t have the time, money or desire to walk more than approximately 115km to reach the end.

We noticed right away a difference in the Camino when we left from Sarria. There were hundreds more people walking, whereas before it rarely ever felt crowded. There were many large groups travelling together, and it was a lot noisier than we were used to. There isn’t anything wrong with this, but it did give a very different feeling and atmosphere to the Camino. We both agreed we prefer the way it was before Sarria, with more peace and quiet, less people, and more time to simply reflect. But for those of you who have been with us from the start you might remember my love for windmills. And on this day I got to see soooo many, which brought pure joy to my heart!

Arriving in A Pena was so exciting because it felt like we hit this milestone that was near impossible when we began. To start off with 800km before us, and now only left with 100km was quite an amazing feeling and I’m proud of us for getting that far! In A Pena we stayed at the only Albergue, in a shared room with two middle aged women who were absolutely lovely. Thankfully, my son slept the entire night through so no one was disturbed by a crying baby. We had a delicious communal dinner with everyone staying there which never disappoints. The food is always so good and we have great conversations.

We are overjoyed to be near the finish line, and can’t believe just how close it is. Thank you for your patience with us as we make posts, and for following along! You are all in our prayers.

God Bless,

Hannah, Tony and Baby