Sat 17 Oct - Day 33: Triacastela to Barbadelo 22km

674km walked. 111km left to walk.

Another early morning that didn't work out all that well. I was out by 7am after a good breakfast as the kitchen facilities were great. However, walking out of town, Deb, Win and I "joined forces" with an American woman with a good torch. Big mistake. We followed the torch rather than following the trail. 

Result; a lot longer and harder distance than we thought it would be. The official guidebook distance as noted above is 22km but the actual distance was something like 29km. 

Having said that, today's walk was spectacularly beautiful. A few photos:

Funny sign time. What you are not allowed to do here...

These dogs were not guard dogs. Despite a Mercedes to protect, there were all wagging tails. 

Among all the ramshackle rural buildings, there was this old historical car waiting for a renovation. Or at least I think that was what the paper notes said. 

Approaching Samos, Deb told me about this viewpoint where I would like to have my photo taken. She was right. 

Amazing monastery down there in Samos. With cows in the foreground. As you have. 

Approaching Samos proper, I really liked this old door. Check out the door handle. 

The Samos monastery from down there in Samos. 

After a coffee and tortilla de chorizo break in Samos, it was more of the beautiful landscape. 

Then... Aha, the old vending machine in the middle of nowhere trick....

With apologies to Maxwell Smart. And Deb who came up with something similar that made me think about Get Smart. 

Sarria. I felt a love / hate relationship with Sarria even before I arrived. Oh yes, Sarria had Turigrinos shops and albergues everywhere. But Sarria in parts had some good spots as well. 

This Sarria whole wall had some excellent Camino street art. 

Sarria had Alphonso the glum. According to Deb, he is pissed off because the Templars down the road had a much better castle than he had. 

Just to confirm where we are... Turigrino heaven. 

Sarria from above. OK I could have taken better and more interesting shots but at this time I was tired and sick of walking for today. 

Mushrooms mushrooms mushrooms. Along the Camino. 

And who in their right mind would drive 50 km / hour here. Really. 

OK. The Camino gives and the Camino takes it away. 

Post Sarria, we stopped in Babadelo just another 4km north of Sarria. Nice hostel, very nice. 

Room 10 in the middle here is where my bed was. 

At day 33 of walking the Camino, I got... Drumroll. My first fricking $&;&;$;& blister.

Why oh why? I reckon there was something getting into my sock that irritated the heal but gosh, it was annoying.  

OK, I probably should put my blister into perspective. These feet are Aaron's. 

A few beers followed. Sophie was on to her intimate questions with new "victims". 

Dinner followed. Yes. A few drinks as well. 

What's that again, Ben? 

The Canadian contingent. From Saskatchewan. Uncle and nephew.  

Some blog statistics:

My very average attempt to a blog seems to get a bit of an international following. There appears to be people from some 7 countries that I know about who read the blog as least occasionally. 

The countries are:

Australia

Sweden

US

United Kingdom

France

Portugal

Germany 

Funnily enough I am not aware of any Spanish readers but there may be. 

Thank you all for taking the time to read, it makes it all worth while.