Stage 6: Sarria to Santiago

Stephanie Heathfield
Jun 13, 2023
5 min read

Via Portomarin, Palas de Rei, Arzua and A Rua

115 km

BAM! At Sarria suddenly everything changed. On arriving for a rest day here I felt physically spent; I guess the amount of walking we had done to date was just catching up with me. I found the last week of the Camino really hard-going and I just hadn't expected that. Having walked by now for over a month I thought I would have been well into the routine, feeling so much fitter, and rearing to go and get to the end point finishing on a real high. Instead, I felt emotionally quite flat and found the walking challenging even though our distances each day weren't too long or the terrain too much of an effort.

Reflecting on the final week, I think this happened for the following reasons:

1) The change in the weather

2) The sudden increase in numbers of people walking the Camino with Sarria as their starting point

3) The realisation that our journey was coming to an end

Shortly before reaching Sarria we had left the region of Castilla y León and crossed the border over into Galicia. We would remain in Galicia for the rest of our journey. This region is referred to as 'green Spain', is very beautiful and filled with verdant rolling hills and leafy forests. The reason for this is . . . . you've guessed it . . . . the rain! The weather here can be very unpredictable, even in summer so you need to be prepared for every eventuality. Galicia certainly doesn't have the same hot and sunny weather as the rest of Spain.

Apart from our Day 1 when it rained for the first hour and a half, we had barely experienced any further rainfall; maybe 3 (4 at the most) rain showers which were over almost as soon as they'd started. At the time I didn't appreciate how lucky we'd been walking in such dry weather, even though it had been windy and chilly at times walking through certain sections of the Camino. Our arrival in Galicia pretty much coincided with the arrival of a few days of rain, which accompanied us all the way to Santiago. It wasn't unpleasant to walk in, as the humidity was quite high and it still felt quite warm. That said it felt a little less enjoyable walking for hour upon hour along muddy, slippery tracks dripping wet. This was also the stage in the journey when I realised just how much my shoes had been worn down by the amount of walking we'd done, so the grip on my soles weren't exactly at their most efficient.

As a unique part of Spain, Galicia has its own customs, culture, food and even language; they speak Gallego. It's an official language, along with Spanish, and it's spoken by around 2.4 million people. A Romanesque language, it has a lot in common with both Spanish and Portuguese. Also Galicia is very similar in lots of ways to other Celtic lands such as Brittany, Wales, Ireland and Scotland. Galicians even have their own local form of bagpipes, which they play on special occasions, such as festivals. In fact in the first café we stopped at for a coffee on entering Galicia one morning, we heard loud Irish Celtic music being played at the bar which sounded quite bizarre and very out of place.

Once in Galicia we immediately began seeing numerous similar stone and/or wooden structures in many of the gardens and fields that we passed. At first I thought these might be a mini family mausoleum given that many had a cross on the roof at one end and they almost looked like a mini church or chapel. They were always high above the ground. After much speculation I thought I'd cracked it when I decided they were storage houses, probably for Tetilla cheese, which is very common in this region of Spain. However, on further investigation it turns out that they're called 'hórreos' and were traditionally used for storing grain. They are raised from the ground by pillars and their very specific structure ensures that rats and mice are unable to climb up and gain access to the food.

I mentioned the increase in number of pilgrims on this section of the Camino. In order to obtain your 'Compostela' (certificate) when you reach Santiago, pilgrims have to have walked at least 100km of the Camino, and Sarria as a main town is situated around 112km from Santiago so this has become a very popular starting point for many people. The Spanish government are also encouraging young people to obtain their 'Compostela' as this is viewed as a beneficial addition to their CV/résumé, so the numbers of younger people walking is on the increase.

Up until Sarria most pilgrims are either walking alone or in pairs. There are very few people who walk in groups. Once we hit Sarria, large groups of pilgrims appeared either walking or cycling together and there was a definite change in the atmosphere from one that had been calm, quite tranquil and reflective from the start, to another louder more jovial one, and in some ways it felt quite intrusive. On the morning we left Sarria we decided to depart a little later than our usual 6am start, beginning instead around 8am. We were immediately caught up in what felt like a mass of people exiting the town at the same time as us. On narrower sections of the path it was difficult to overtake and most of the day I spent walking either slower than my usual pace, or more quickly just to get ahead of groups of pilgrims. We learnt our lesson that day and for the rest of the week went back to our usual early schedule which resulted in us avoiding the 'crowds' and continuing to enjoy a bit of peace and quiet.

We had also made friends with a number of people earlier on in our journey who were doing the Camino in shorter stages, and for a lot of these walkers Sarria was their 'end point' for this year so we had to say farewell to some new-found friends who we'd been alongside for the past 1 or 2 weeks. We would have loved to have completed the Camino together with them but many walk in short bursts, a week or two each year, when they're able to take time off work or can afford time away from their families. I missed their company during our last few days.

I knew that coming to the end of the Camino would be hard, but it hit me in a much deeper way than I'd expected. In my own mind, I had been thinking about this walk on and off for the past 12 years and I'd spent a fair amount of time over the previous few months planning and looking forward to walking. Now it was almost over and I felt a real sense of sadness and approaching loss. So I hate to say it but I was pretty grumpy for much of the final few days. That said, a sense of excitement was also building at the prospect of finally reaching Santiago. Our scheduled arrival date was Friday 9th June and we were on target. It rained all day Thursday and when I looked at the weather forecast for the following day, it didn't look great. But, I was still optimistic as I went to bed on Thursday night and hoped and prayed that we'd have a sunny dry day to reach our Cathedral destination. I was to be disappointed.

All of the above comments aside, we still had 5 days left of walking in some stunningly beautiful countryside, through eucalyptus tree forests, over rivers and streams, past palm trees and through quaint sleepy Spanish villages full of character and friendly residents.

Rush-hour in Galicia:

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/e77a07_2155432afcc046eb8e3da2323f61d4a9/480p/mp4/file.mp4

Lunchtime on the Camino: