Triacastela to Sarria

We were up and on the road around 8am as we did not have a wonderful night. We are still trying to determine if we have a lot of mosquito bites (didn´t hear much buzzing) or are we dealing with bed bugs. There are many topics that one can not adequately deal with on a BlackBerry and that we might consider later, and one of those is the plague of bedbugs on the Camino; how they pass from hostel to hostel in pilgrims bedding, how the swelling can appear a day after the actual bites, the question of how to control the insects and to treat the victims.

Today´s walk was 20 KM on primarily a quiet road and some natural paths. Ascent was probably 300 meters and we climbed very steeply at first and then leveled off. The first place for cafe con leche didn´t appear until 10:30 so we had covered 11 KM BC (before cafe) which is never an easy thing! We continued to dodge the cow pies on the trails and through the small hamlets. Like yesterday we walked though many narrow lanes walled-in with granite "corredoria" which many perigrinos and cattle have walked down.

We had finally managed last night to get some help in arranging the last day of transportation for my pack and in making a reservation in an albergues/pension which is working out very well as we have our own room and share the bathroom with another double room and we had just finished using the washing machine and clothes were on the line to dry when there was a sprinkling of rain. The Albergue had a dryer so that took care of the problem of wet clothes.

Before using the washing machine we had dashed to the Correos to send about 5 lbs of stuff on to Santiago to lighten our packs. After the laundry was done we repacked and again found a few more things to leave behind in addition to the pages from our guide book for today´s walk.

We hiked up into the old town and got our sello from the Romanesque church, and then visited the ancient convent called Mosterio da Madalena (Convent of Mary Magdalene).

We also found an urgent care facility which looked at Leslie´s left inside heel which had been infected and is still healing. They cleaned the wound and prescribed an antibiotic to apply daily for the next few days and said not to walk far. That is a bit of a problem because tomorrow we enter the last 100 Km and we have to cover a lot of ground to reach our evening destination. We will play it by  ear and see how she feels.

We have reservations for the next 2 nights in albergues that also provide a private double room, as when we don´t have easy access to laundry facilities the room becomes the laundromat and not everything is dry in the morning. I think you saw on the pack a couple of days ago several pairs of socks drying.

While we had originally intended to have another rest day at this point, the drive is to complete the last 100KM.. At Sarria there are many albergues as many will be joining us on the trail tomorrow. We have already planned out the first cafe con leche stop.