Day 27 - Sarria to Gonzar

Eid Mubarak everyone and I have to say acommodation wise, Sarria was the low point. Having received a blizzard of messages asking me to confirm my booking and check in online, I eventually found the Rio Albergue, a soulless concrete monstrosity at the back of an industrial estate. No people involved here, just a succession of PIN numbers to get you in the front door and then into your assigned room. I say room, cell would be a better description, a small, white, rectangular box, a fluorescent light, no window and a mattress made from a mix of cardboard and bricks.

To get to Santiago by the 30th, I have a succession of longer days. Today was 30km, and the intelligence about how busy this last stretch would be was entirely correct. To put it mildly I was ‘in company’ and as far as I could understand it, the company was mostly American.

Now I quite understand why most Americans want to leave their country just now, but why they all want to come on the Camino, and why they think the Union Jack on my pack is a signal I’ll be happy to talk to them is quite beyond me. As the day progressed, I found myself adopting an increasingly grumpy and reclusive persona and I have to say if, in the coming days, I ever hear “God bless your soul” in an American accent again, I won’t be responsible for my actions.

 

The saving grace was of course the Galician countryside. Lush fields, green forests, and rolling hills and because this stretch is so much busier, there seems to be a café every mile, most welcome as the temperature has now got up into the thirties. Tonight’s stop is an Albergue in Gonzar. I shall keep myself very much to myself.

 

 

 


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