Monday June 3 Triacastela to Sarria 13 miles

Song of the day: Haunts of Ancient Peace by Van Morrison.  I'm reprinting all the lyrics, because they fit so well:

Beside the garden walls

We walk in haunts of ancient peace

At night we rest and go to sleep

In haunts of ancient peace

The love and light we seek

The words we do not need to speak

Here in this wondrous way we keep

These haunts of ancient peace

Let us go there again

Oh, when we need some relief

Oh, when I can't find my feet

When I need rest and sleep

The Sunday bells they chime

Around the countryside and towns

A song of harmony and rhyme

In haunts of ancient peace

The holy grail we seek

On down by haunts of ancient peace

We see the new Jerusalem

In haunts of ancient peace

Oh, when I can't find my feet

Oh, when I need, I need some relief

I want to go there one more time again

You know I want to go there one more time again

Be still in haunts of ancient peace

Be still

I think the words to this song are almost perfect for most days of our trip.  But, particularly this stage.  Much of our walk today was along a heavily wooded, walled path.Truly stunning scenery and the weather was perfect.  The sounds of birds and wildlife were alive, and we did not have to deal with car traffic.  The temperature was in the mid 60's  most of the day, before warming up to the 70's later in the afternoon.   Definitely a walk to remember.

Along the way, we passed through several small, agricultural villages. We have noticed many buildings where the animals are kept on the first floor, and the people live on the second floor.  Must make for some interesting smells at times....

Linda and I were both feeling a little sad today, because we have just begun to realize that this hike will be coming to an end when we arrive in Santiago on Saturday.  One of the truly wonderful things about this hike has been the short term focus of your day.  You wake up in the morning, put on your boots, and start hiking until you reach your daily destination.  During the day, you think about many things, but not the end of the hike.  Funny enough, it just felt like you would just keep walking forever to reach Santiago.  But, here we are, having walked over 400 miles, and only 75 to go and the end is in sight.  Yesterday, we made hotel reservations for the next 6 days, because of the tightness of availability.  As they say, we are now "locked and loaded"!

One thing I haven't talked about  is "taking care of personal business" along the trail.  For a guy, it's usually pretty easy, just stand off to the side and get the job done.  For a woman, this takes a little more planning, involving finding the right moment when there aren't many people around and where there is protection of bushes, etc.  We pretty much have this down to a science after 30 days on the trail.  Until today....Linda said she had to go, we checked out the trail for hikers behind us.  No hikers in sight, a nice clump of bushes, good to go!  As Linda is just getting started, I yell out, "Linda, there are some horse riders coming"!  Fortunately, Linda is pretty fast at this stuff, and managed to put herself together before they passed.  That's a new one for us....

We arrived in Sarria around 1:30, and had a good lunch, sitting outside to enjoy the warmth of the sun.   Sarria is a town of about 13,000 and does not seem to have the charm or architectural prizes  of many of the other Spanish towns we have been through.

Tomorrow, we have a walk of 14 miles to Portomarin.  There will be a fair amount of climb and the weather is forecasted to be warmer.  I may break out those shorts yet!