Personal

My French walking companion and I decide to leave early to avoid the crowds. It takes us about an hour to pass most of them in the dark before we're ahead of the pack. Like the Tour de France, but with trekking poles, backpacks with shells hanging off them and dorky outdoor clothing. When we finally get to the top of the hill, we're almost at the sunrise, it's marvellous view, and we're almost on our own. We stop at a cafe for breakfast, others catch up.

I'd heard about the crowds starting in Sarria, and to some degree I was prepared mentally for it. I'd not walked the three plus weeks that the full-timers had, but it was a stark contrast between the quiet Galician countryside today. The walk is pretty our little group leaves after 8, and there are dozens of fellow pilgrims on the way out of Sarria. The vast majority are tourists, starting from Sarria. A beautiful sunrise passing through a pine tree is punctuated by dozens of photographers, including myself of course.

Sarria, my French walking companion and I decide, is the beginning of the end. For him, this is much enhanced, he has been walking since early September. Even I feel this, eleven days into my trip. The tourist pilgrims start in Sarria. They arrive en masse, and walk the bare minimum required to get their pilgrim certificate in Santiago.

Today is the first day I get to take it easy for the entire trip. There's a convergence of factors that allow this. Firstly, there's no "beat the heat" early start, as the temperature in the hottest part of the day is early twenties. Secondly, I'm not racing to get a place in a municipal albergue. My French walking companion and I have a date with a mother/son from Utah to watch the sunrise from the mountain in O Cebreiro.

Today I slept in. For some reason, I've been waking up really early almost as long as I've been doing this. Three times now. We go to bed early.

After yesterday's intense climb and descent, today's walk is a relatively easier 31km, but mostly on flat. After walking along a road for an hour or so, I enter one of the many Camino scenic route "diversions". It's pleasant enough, with a view over Ponferrada as the sun is coming up. After another hour or so, my French friend catches up with me, and we spend the rest of the day walking together. We stop for evening primrose, cat cuddles, stork nests, mimosa flowers, cottonwood groves, run down houses, broken balconies, scarred grey poplar.