Leaving Triacastela we had two possible routes. The main route was 6.5km shorter but had a lot of steep ascents, so K decided that as she and her legs were too tired to cope with another steep hill we would take the longer easier walk, and once she'd had enough she would catch a taxi to Sarria.
We knew that this route would be quieter but were pleasantly surprised at how quiet it was, for once there was no endless Spanish chatter, and no "tap tap tap" of stick walkers on rock. The path followed the highway in the beginning but then diverged and lead us through some lovely countryside and villages in which the only sign the of the Camino was the yellow arrows along the way.
At the end of one steep climb we found a lovely modern cafe which was a great coffee stop before we hit the road again. The ascents and descents became much steeper and the path on some of the descents had deteriorated to shale, the final descent into the pretty town of Somos was very long and steep. This is what finally did K in as she called it quits after about 11km.
There is a large monastery in town and a surprising number of tourists who definitely had not walked there via the route we had taken. The local tourist office were very helpful and found a taxi who drove K on to Sarria, while M continued to walk.
M arrived a couple of hours later saying the path was quite difficult at times so K was pleased she hadn't attempted it. We sat outside a restaurant in Sarria very close to our albergue, a man we had met on day 1 came up and re-introduced himself, then two American girls we had met the day before joined us. A Brazilian man they had already met also joined us, he'd had a fall and had a couple of stitches above his eye. Wine was consumed and Camino stories shared, the girls said that the guy from the first day was a priest and he knew everyone on the trail, but he sure seemed to drink a lot for a priest ....
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