Day 15: Sarria to Casanova. We have learned that Sarria is roughly 100km from Santiago de Compostela and it is the last place any pilgrim can officially earn a certificate. It is also the place where multiple Camino’s converge and thus, from here to the end, rooms are impossible to find. Anyone doing the Camino must reserve in advance for at least the last 100km.

The path was like a Disneyworld ride, lines of pilgrims the entire day. In fact, we passed 522 today, the most by far of any day. We found that many started from Sarria and were planning to do 20km per day for 5 days. Couples with their dogs, elderly troupes of women and tons of kids on class/field trips. We spied a priest along the way talking to a group about the path.

The section today rose above the clouds again and then back down into Palas de Rei on a sunny, warm day. Much of the path from there on was covered in woods on a trail that had been used for how many centuries?

My Brazilian friends saw me running again as they had left at 6am and I passed them on the trail. Lucky Caminho is still with me.

We came upon a farmer on our left tilling the soil, the husband in the tractor moving the earth while his wife was doing the heavy lifting get the rocks and unwanted out of the tilling.

During these runs we need to constantly course correct. With hotel availability an issue, we were forced once again to stay 25 minutes from the Camino. Anytime you can’t stay right on the route, there is overhead to get back and forth with our precious time. And, these roads are fraught with potential disasters. I called an audible this morning suggesting we try to get our Paradore in Santiago de Compostela for tomorrow night as our plan was to do 20km on the last day so why not just park our bags and stay there night before. Luckily there was availability and thus decided to go a little longer today to leave 60km for a last day push rather than save 20km for another day. I let everyone know the final meeting point at 61km left.

I arrived 4:30pm and Christina found me at 5pm. She was taking me back to the hotel before Yash’s predicted arrival of 5:45pm. We took a wrong turn. Backing up to turn around, the van fell into a ditch. Impossible to get out we got out and saw a taxi coming by and hailed him for help. Five drunk Spanish men did their best but after 15 minutes they said adios. Christina was distraught as she saw a farm at the end of the tree line narrow lane. She ran there and came back with a mother and her son who was still in his overalls, dirty from a days work but driving a tractor. They assessed and went back down the lane coming back with chains and large blocks. I ran to help the mother who signaled she was fine carrying what looked like 3 kettle bells, I had to forcibly take the heavy blocks. Everyone was digging in the dirt to clear the tires that were stuck and then put blocks under them. The mother picked up a boulder that must have weighed 75 pounds because I signaled for her to leave it, let me do it and almost hurt myself trying to move it. Finally the son came over and lifted it himself. The son hooked up the chain to the rear, blocks under the tires and hallelujah, the van was dragged backward onto the dirt road.

Christina was crying tears of relief, I yelled and the mother and son smiled. I attempted to give her 100 euros to thank her but she refused, taking my hand in her strong grip, looking me in the eye and sternly saying no. Of course my programming of ABC - always be closing - was stronger than her physical and we amicably agreed down the middle at 50 euros which made me happy. I always stress to anyone on the team that things will go wrong inevitably. We are pushing limits and must accept our turn to face extreme challenges. I have found that in all of my runs, the team has always overcome the challenges. The more extreme, the more there is a story to tell.

Cheers,

David.