The day of our travel from Triacastela to Sarria began quite differently and continued that way. The first surprise of the day was the announcement by brother Ronnie, that he realized during the night that his gout had reappeared after an absence of more than two years, and that he could not walk to the next city. He decided he would see medical attention and then take a taxi and meet us there.
Sean and I left the hostel around 630 and began our walk which gave us many beautiful vistas throughout the day, which involved 13 1/2 miles, which took us 5 1/2 hours, not counting the stops along the way.
We had two wonderful stops. First was a sort of rest area begun and hosted by volunteers. We walked into the courtyard and saw a table filled with breakfast food: cereal, cookies, bread, jam, fruit, and other items. You were free to eat as much as you wanted along with coffee or tea; and you were invited to make any kind of donation you wished. This “ hospitality center” was begun 10 years ago by a young man named Simon, whom I had the pleasure to meet and spend a few minutes talking with. I really felt I was in the presence of a very holy man. The area also included a labyrinth that Simon had constructed. Sean spent several minutes there.
The second unplanned stop was about a quarter mile off of the regular path. We actually decided to follow the sign pointing us away from the route to a large house because we were so distracted by another pilgrim that we have met two or three times along the way who has a loud boom box which he plays for the whole world to hear. Total distraction. But we were happy that we had made the decision because we arrived at the home and work area of a man, now deceased, who made fantastic images and paintings from ground stone of many colors, all of which came from different parts of Galicia. It reminded us of the Native American sand sculptures in bottles. I will try to post photos of both of those stops on a separate page of our site.
The second big surprise of the day was a message we received from brother Ronnie, who arrived by taxi before us in Sarria. While walking the neighborhood around our hostel, he tripped on steps, fell, and injured his left hand. He went to a local hospital, x-rays taken, and had his hand put into a type of cast, but nothing is broken. When we arrived and met him, he was all smiles and ready to continue the Camino.
However, we then had a third surprise. Sean was not able to get train reservations out of Sarris the following day as planned to return to Madrid and instead had to leave us early by taxi to a nearby city and then take a bus from there to Madrid. That was a big disappointment for everyone.
Brother Ronnie and I met up again with some of our Australian friends and enjoyed a delicious meal and a lively visit before returning to our hostel for the night