We stayed at the Pension Complexo Xcobeo, an indeterminate star hotel complex comprising a hotel, Albergue and restaurant.The hotel part is a separate building that seems to have been added after the Albergue was established. Mike’s straw hat is showing serious signs of wear, here’s hoping it lasts all the way to Santiago.
The view from my room was the common clothes drying area (for the Albergue and the hotel). The bed was minuscule (and sort of comfy) and the ground floor location, and the wooden slide blinds, meant I couldn’t leave the window open to counter the lack of air conditioning. In spite of that my sleep was ok and breakfast was a little better than expected. It was already pretty warm as we left Triacastela and started up the inevitable hill towards San Xil.
The scenery was beautiful at this stage, green valleys, wooded hillsides and small rivers as we headed steadily upwards. We passed the Fuente de Os Lameiros, essentially a fountain and a resting spot, which was quite run down and not worth stopping at.
The walk so far this morning was pretty isolated, most folks having taken the longer, flatter section south via Samos. We finished climbing the hill (always got to get the body going after breakfast) and took a brief descent down to where an old church had been converted into a house (in the middle of nowhere!).
Another hill climbed and we saw a group of birch trees surrounded by concentric circles of stones, this is usually done for water management to trap moisture, slow runoff, reduce evaporation, and protect the root zone of young trees. We then started the long descent towards Sarria, passing a farm that had its own chapel, getting a glimpse of the of the town through the trees.
After a bit of a steep descent, just in case our knees had fully recovered from yesterday, the trail flattened out somewhat and we passed a few freshly ploughed fields. Interesting to see how, over the last month, we have passed fields from being ready to plough through to fully of healthy crops. We hadn’t seen a stork for a while so it was nice to see one on top of a pole feeding its two chicks. Finally we crossed the Rio Sarria and took the long walk through the town to our accommodation.
A quick bit of maths and we agreed that we had now walked over 5,000km on our annual walks. If we include all the Thames Path, and other challenges and training walks, the total surely comes to over 6,000km. That’s the equivalent of walking from the west cast of Australia to the east coast and then halfway back again!
