Day 31 - Sunday, 22nd May, 2014 - 26.8 km
[Eila, early morning Albergue anxiety - Samos]
[Leaving Samos]
[Spanish cyclist, who we had spoken to, making her way from Samos to Melide]
[Rural route to rejoin the Camino from Samos]
[Rural route to rejoin the Camino from Samos]
We had never discussed what we should do if one of us got lost, which might have been useful today.
We set off from Samos and made our way following the road to Sarria. This was to rejoin the main Camino route, as the route to the Benedictine Monastery at Samos was a short detour off the main route. You can carry on along the main road the whole way into Sarria, but there was a countrified route that cut off Right and North, off the main road and this is the route we followed. It was a very rural route and Eila, who was behind me stopped to take some pictures and in doing so Michael and I got slightly ahead of her. After a picturesque bridge there was a fork in the road with the Camino route going Left; it had a small arrow marked on the road surface to indicate the way. As I continued on I overtook a couple of pilgrims and soon after checked behind me whether Eila had overtaken them too. She was not to be seen. Michael, who was ahead of me, just passed round a bend out of sight so I stopped to wait for Eila. First the set of pilgrims I had overtaken came by, then more, who I had not previously seen, so I asked whether they had seen a lady with blonde hair, a grey backpack with pink straps; they had not. It was now too late for me to attract Michael's attention, but I started to walk back. I eventually came to a straight section where I could see for a couple of hundred meters, but still no Eila. I decided to walk back to the previous junction just after the picturesque bridge and tried phoning her on her mobile. This failed, so I sent a text, saying that I was going back to look for her. Once I reached the junction I waited. We had had quite a wet morning with intermittent rain and it was cold standing around. I thought what would Ray Mears do, (the survival expert on the telly). He would normally suggest drinking water and keeping warm. I put my pack on the ground, zipped up my waterproof and opened a bag of peanuts I had in my pack and started eating and walking around while waiting. I suddenly got a text from Eila saying that she was at a T junction and did not know which way to go, where were we? I texted her back asking her whether she had been up a steep hill and if so to retrace her steps back towards the junction by the bridge, where I was waiting for her. As I sent the message, my iPhone went into its shutdown mode, indicating that the text was the final straw for my phones weak battery. There was to be no more communication from my phone. I felt a bit useless because if Eila had been advised by locals to continue off course to rejoin the Camino route then there was no way that she could let me know that she had resolved her wrong turn. I thought that I just had to keep calm and remain at that junction. Ten minutes passed, a quarter of an hour and then I suddenly heard her voice as she came down the hill, simultaneously I heard Michael shouting at me as he returned along the Camino route from his forward position - crisis resolved, we all met up!
[Eila, Rural route to rejoin the Camino from Samos]
[Stopping at useful outdoor shop at Sarria]
[Galician Stew!]
We continued together to Sarria where we had decided that we needed to eat in order to have energy to continue; we had hoped to do a bit of a longer day. Having called at the Outdoor Shop for a new towel for Michael, which he had accidentally left behind at an Albergue, we continued up the hill to a small cafe restaurant and asked for their menu. People should be familiar that I am not a fussy eater and rarely turn my nose up at food. We had decided that we had had enough of omelettes and Pilgrim's menu type food, that we decided to go for a single item on the menu and as it was a cold day the item marked 'Galician Stew' looked a good bet, ideal for a cold day. First of all they said that they would need twenty minutes to cook the potatoes, so we waited. The 'Galician Stew', when it eventually came in, took us by surprise. It was not a broth with potatoes floating in the juice, but strange cuts, or rather off-cuts of meat that a butcher would usually chuck away. The boiled potatoes were surrounded by a kind of 'road-kill' of meat that would insult animals run over by cars! Michael, who had presumed that I knew what I was ordering, had ordered the same so that the double dish was his as well as mine, unfortunately for him. The only redeeming feature seemed to be that we had both been allocated a chorizo sausage amongst pig's ear and tripe and goodness knows what else. The reactions of the other customers in the restaurant was a picture. There were expressions of horror and disgust. It was if they wanted to know what we had ordered to make sure they did not accidentally make the same mistake. It was just surprising that something so completely revolting could be offered to restaurant customers; that anyone could possibly believe that such grim food could even appear vaguely appetising. Even Baldrick on Blackadder could not have challenged this production!
We left to continue our journey fighting the effects of feeling slightly sick. The afternoon weather was very windy, but the rain stayed away until we were safely at the night's Alburgue. The evening menu there started with Galician Soup. "Is there any meat in the soup?" We asked. We were told it was vegetable soup, but with some stock for flavour, we decided to give it a go, it was delicious, not a hint of strange meaty off cuts!
Buen Camino.
[Leaving Sarria]
[On route to Morgade]
[On route to Morgade]
[On route to Morgade]
[On route to Morgade]
[Rupert by '100km to go' marker stone, On route to Morgade]
