Latest / WCBH / Day 42 - Camino Francés: 22km from Sarria to Portomarín

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Day 42 - Camino Francés: 22km from Sarria to Portomarín · WCBH

• 0:25
  Good morning, it's day 42. Today we walk 22 kilometres from Saria to Porto Morin.
• 0:32
  Today is the beginning of the final six days.
• 0:36
  This is the path that Sherilyn and I walked back in 2017, so we're both really
• 0:41
  excited to walk this path again and see what we remember and what we've forgotten.
• 0:47
  Last time we walked it, it was between Christmas and New Year's.
• 0:51
  This time we're now in
• 0:54
  we're at the beginning of the season we're in april and there's
• 0:57
  a marked difference already with
• 1:00
  the amount of people and the amount of things that are open uh we've got school
• 1:05
  groups we've got people from all around the world you know we've just passed
• 1:08
  um some australians one lady 84 years old she's walking the final 113 kilometers at 84 that's amazing,
• 1:19
  hope that I and Sherilyn can still do this at 84 yeah so really looking forward
• 1:25
  to the final six days last time we did it in five we weren't conditioned but
• 1:31
  I I think with having experience what we experience just taking the time and
• 1:36
  doing it over six I think will be a whole lot more,
• 1:39
  enjoyable than what we did last time which pushed us almost to breaking point.
• 1:44
  But yeah, much, much busier now on the path,
• 1:48
  which is going to take a little bit to get used to because we've largely had
• 1:54
  the path or decent stretches of the path to ourselves, which has been beautiful.
• 2:00
  But I have been looking forward to this part and the busyness and just seeing
• 2:06
  so many people saying hello, finding out where they're from, et cetera.
• 2:12
  And the school group that we're sort of walking in between at the moment, very polite.
• 2:18
  What an amazing group of young people, but what an amazing school camp.
• 2:24
  This is such an experience for them to be able to walk these final six days as a cohort.
• 2:31
  Yeah, very exciting for them. So looking forward to the next six days.
• 2:36
  We're a bit over halfway today. We've just stopped for a short break at a cafe.
• 2:41
  Very much a different feel today than what we've had over the first 41 days.
• 2:47
  Yeah, very different. Very busy, loud, drash, lots of new pilgrims learning
• 2:55
  the etiquette of the past.
• 2:58
  We've just met one lady who we've seen from further back, which is nice to see.
• 3:03
  Probably sounds snobby here, but an experienced pilgrim.
• 3:07
  But just dealing with people you know blocking the
• 3:10
  path and just all those little things about
• 3:13
  etiquette it's very different and it's made the
• 3:16
  walk feel different too i had a good conversation with a man from puerto rico
• 3:21
  it's quite amazing the transport that people take to get here and how quickly
• 3:28
  or how long it takes them he left puerto rico yesterday morning 6 a.m his time,
• 3:35
  Flew to Philadelphia, flew to Madrid,
• 3:39
  quarter train to Saria and was in Saria last night.
• 3:42
  Did that all on the one day...
• 3:45
  From Puerto Rico, so they're in the Caribbean. It takes us days,
• 3:50
  but you're right, there is a different feel.
• 3:53
  I don't dislike the feel, but it is certainly different. People are so excited
• 3:58
  today because it's the first day of their walk.
• 4:01
  Yes, they're very excited and they've been charging up and down the hills and
• 4:05
  I think they're going to feel it very much tomorrow.
• 4:09
  I don't quite get it, but we've seen this when we've travelled to Spain previously.
• 4:16
  But people have breakfast beer and then they'll have beer at morning tea and
• 4:21
  they'll have beer at lunch and part of it must be cultural, but I don't,
• 4:26
  I wouldn't like to drink a glass of beer and then go walk in the hot sun.
• 4:30
  I think the Australian view of beer is you would do the walk first,
• 4:36
  you'd get it out the way, you'd get all the hard stuff done and then you'd have
• 4:41
  a beer at the end of the day to cool down.
• 4:43
  I don't know, you know, we joke about breakfast beers.
• 4:46
  I don't quite understand how it
• 4:49
  makes people feel good to have a drink and then walk out in the hot sun.
• 4:53
  No, neither do I. And we might see some of that change after their first day.
• 4:59
  Like you said, they're all very excited.
• 5:01
  And again, not trying to sound snobby, but we've done over 600 kilometres and
• 5:05
  see what happens when people try to start out really hard and fast and do all
• 5:11
  that. The next day they're a bit sore and sorry.
• 5:13
  Maybe they'll look at me, shake their head at me, where I'll have a coffee in
• 5:17
  the morning and then throughout the day I'll drink water.
• 5:21
  I might have a tonic or a tonic water, but...
• 5:25
  I still drink tea throughout the day, you know, something hot,
• 5:29
  but it still makes me feel good.
• 5:31
  So maybe it's a cultural thing. Maybe.
• 5:34
  Might be a cultural thing. You know, a cup of tea maybe heats you up,
• 5:40
  but then it cools you down as well.
• 5:41
  And I don't think I'd want to drink coffee throughout the day,
• 5:45
  coffee in the morning or two coffees in the morning, that sort of thing.
• 5:49
  But maybe not throughout the day.
• 5:51
  It just will dehydrate you too much.
• 5:54
  It is a beautiful walk, though, the stretch from Saria to Port Omerin,
• 6:00
  like through a lot of green rolling fields, some forests, some farmland.
• 6:05
  I've seen a lot of cattle around. I'm just walking past some now. It is very pretty.
• 6:10
  It has been very beautiful. We started off with a very foggy morning,
• 6:14
  and it was really nice to see that lift and then the change in the colours and
• 6:20
  the hills. and we've been walking through some very pretty forest.
• 6:25
  It's just rather than having the sands of nature, we've got sands of people around you.
• 6:30
  One of the things that we're learning is about how good or how poor or how different
• 6:37
  is our recollections for 2017.
• 6:41
  That you may have thought something looked a certain way or something was so
• 6:46
  large or this was the order, et cetera, and then you come back through and, you know,
• 6:52
  there's one stretch that I think I can remember it very vividly and there's
• 6:58
  other parts where I'm all going, I don't even remember this.
• 7:01
  We must have been a bit of a daze though, 2017, and I'd say by about this stretch,
• 7:08
  like we're just about to come up on the marker that says that we've only got 100 kilometres to go.
• 7:13
  But I imagine in 2017, we would have been starting to feel quite sore by this stage.
• 7:19
  Yes, you. If you're just doing this stage, those hills would have been enough
• 7:25
  to make you sore, particularly when you're all excited and you charge up and
• 7:29
  down them and you get to the 100k marker.
• 7:32
  And I don't think you really notice 100k because you're just starting from Saria.
• 7:37
  But for us it's quite momentous.
• 7:40
  Big difference in sunlight as well.
• 7:43
  We're walking in the back end of December in 2017 and now we're walking early April.
• 7:50
  So there's a couple of months apart and we're in spring.
• 7:55
  It's a clear, fine sunny day.
• 7:59
  It's actually hot. Yes. But it's good walking conditions. It's not crazy hot.
• 8:05
  It's just a good level of heat.
• 8:08
  Even though it's warm enough, I still want to wear the tracksuit because it's good sun protection.
• 8:15
  I think the weather, it said it was going to a maximum of 26 degrees, but starting at eight.
• 8:22
  So we started with light jackets, knowing it would heat up, and it has.
• 8:27
  So it's warm, but it's not Darwin hot. There's nothing near that.
• 8:32
  All right, well here we go, coming up on the 100km mark, and then it's 100 to go.
• 8:37
  So we're here. We've made it to Port-au-Marin. Actually, it's the first time
• 8:41
  we've actually stayed right in the centre of Port-au-Marin.
• 8:44
  Last time we stayed on the opposite side of the bridge, which is just outside Port-au-Marin.
• 8:50
  So it's the last time I've actually been into this town and had a look around and stayed in here.
• 8:55
  And it looks quite nice. I found today really hard.
• 9:00
  22 kilometres. It was hot. It was busy. The last five kilometres seem to be really, really tough.
• 9:06
  And I didn't think I would find it that hard.
• 9:08
  I thought I should have my Camino legs by now.
• 9:11
  Yeah, I think the temperature change might have something to do with that.
• 9:16
  The temperature, I think, was around 26 degrees. And we've spent most of our
• 9:22
  hike with a top of like 10 degrees.
• 9:25
  So I think that might have made it a little bit more taxing.
• 9:30
  Also, walking through crowds, like when normally we keep our own pace, we keep a good pace.
• 9:36
  We were kind of forced to stop for a while, to have a break,
• 9:40
  just to get rid of part of the crowd. and normally we'd go just over halfway
• 9:45
  but I think it's a few of those things.
• 9:48
  So what you're saying is I'm not unfit, it's the other people's fault that I
• 9:51
  was feeling it towards the end there.
• 9:55
  Yeah, possibly the heat made a difference. It was hot.
• 9:58
  In fact, we left minutes after 9am this morning.
• 10:04
  We didn't get into town until about 3.38pm, I think.
• 10:09
  You know, that's a full day of walking and we only had, like you said,
• 10:13
  the one break, which would have been max for half an hour.
• 10:18
  So that's really been what we've done every day for the last 42 days is it's
• 10:24
  kind of been a full day of walking.
• 10:25
  Yeah, a full day of walking. We were up and down hills, but I think the crowds
• 10:32
  played a bit into that too.
• 10:34
  It was very crowded at the start. It was like the start of a fun run almost.
• 10:38
  Everyone was excited and we had that big school group and these hordes of new.
• 10:43
  Hikers on the trail and we're all trying to find our own spot and our own pace.
• 10:48
  We did. We went out of the gates very fast along with everyone else. We got swept up in it.
• 10:54
  We pretty much went the same pace as the school group all the way along because
• 10:59
  we actually arrived in Port-au-Marin the same time they did.
• 11:04
  There's a huge staircase at the entrance to Port-au-Marin and they were,
• 11:08
  just as you come off this pretty impressive bridge, come off the bridge, massive staircase.
• 11:14
  They had just arrived and were just sitting on the staircase to get a big group
• 11:18
  photo and we were just crossing the bridge behind them.
• 11:21
  A bit like the Amazing Race really, isn't it? Where we all started together.
• 11:26
  Who will get there? Who will be eliminated? They arrived to the staircase minutes
• 11:32
  before us, but we got across the bridge anyway.
• 11:35
  We did. We did. And there were others that were behind us, some new people and
• 11:41
  a couple of people we've seen before.
• 11:44
  How do you think we'd go on the amazing race?
• 11:49
  Let's not answer that. We'd get along fine. There'd be no disputes over any
• 11:55
  decisions, wouldn't there?
• 12:00
  You know what I'd really struggle with on the amazing race is,
• 12:05
  I don't know what time period it shot over, but when they're on the plane,
• 12:09
  I would imagine they're factored in that you're sleeping on the plane.
• 12:14
  I can't sleep on planes. So I think it would be, I think that would be really, really tough as well.
• 12:21
  It would be. It would be very tough. Some of the challenges would be tough as well. Yeah.
• 12:26
  And normally we like a break in between flights. I imagine they're going from place to place.
• 12:32
  All right. A little bit sidetracked there. Yeah. Five days to go,
• 12:35
  less than a hundred kilometers to go. So exciting. it's exciting.