It’s been a long, hard day, possibly too hard. We left Sarria a little late. We’d been awake during the middle of the night wondering whether mum’s knee problems meant that we should look for alternatives to walking to Santiago. At 8 o’clock we took the decision to continue.

Mum’s knee started out ok and we made comfortable progress towards our intended lunch time at Portomarin. Sarria is a bit of a dump, it wasn’t a surprise to see this sort of dilapidation

in the centre of the city.

The route quickly found itself in the countryside and this lovely old tree.

We saw many of these strange constructions en route.

We wondered whether they were intended as homes for pollinating insects but a Dutch chap suggested that they were drying containers for maize.

We’ve been religiously counting down the km on the marker stones and finally came to this one.

Only 100 km to go 🌝.

More of the strange structures and something quite weird.

Why would someone do that?

Shortly after we were forced to step to one side by a farmer and presumably his wife driving some cows and sheep along the road.

I saw my first swallow of the year

We stopped for lunch some 5 km short of Portomarin. Unlike most restaurant/bars that we’ve gone across, the food was of a very high standard. 5 km doesn’t sound a lot but a km in the afternoon is considerably longer than a km in the morning and in fact seems to get longer in response to the distance already covered; think of Escher’s hyperbolic geometries.

We made it to Portomarin, stopped briefly for some sparking water but then continued on to our intended stopping place for the night at Gonzar.

On the way we passed through a small forest of burned trees, very sad and dispiriting.

Our pace slowed, only 5 km left but it seemed to be completely out of reach. Mum’s knee seemed to ‘go’ and walking was extremely painful. We stopped, walked a little, stopped again, walked painfully, stopped, rested and tried again. Mum was clearly in some distress so we strapped her backpack onto my chest and I headed off towards Gonzar with mum very slowly shuffling behind. In this way we arrived at a lovely albergue in Gonzar.

We’ve had a shower, some dinner and a glass of wine each and although it’s only 20:45, mum is already asleep. I’m hoping that sleep and rest will provide the magic dust that will allow us both to continue in the morning. We’re down to 84 km; we have three full days in which to walk. If the ibuprofen gel and paracetamol can help calm an inflamed knee and very tired feet and calf muscles we have a good chance of walking the remaining distance. If not, we’ll have to think of an alternative.

Buen Camino