Sarria is the most popular place to start the Camino as from there it is just over 100km to Santiago, so there were a lot more peregrinos ready to start this morning as we went for breakfast at 8am. We chose a quiet cafe but within five minutes it was full of Spanish walkers talking very loudly, it seemed that any chance of solitude is finished for the rest of our Camino.
We walked past some large groups, name tagged with guides and wearing new shoes and clean clothes, it was easy to spot the newbies. Before this point the cyclists had been a bit of a nuisance but mostly harmless, but today we noticed many more who insisted on taking the walking track rather than the road, and ringing or shouting and expecting us to just jump out of the way so that they wouldn't have to slow down .... how rude!
Another group on our gripe list was the noisy stick walkers, especially those who have bought the cheap sticks without rubber tips, which create so much noise clicking on the stones and bitumen, they insist on tapping their sticks even when walking on perfectly level paths where you'd expect there to be little to no advantage.
We were only a few km out of Sarria when we came across a support van that was giving out drinks and snacks to their group, we would continue to encounter the van during the day. We walked in light showers and drizzle, the first real rain we had seen and the drop in temperature was welcome. There were many more shops and stalls along the way and at one point we were asked to sign a petition, we knew this was a scam so ignored them of course.
Today was the easiest leg of the walk to date, fortunately the crowds we experienced in the morning thinned out as the day progressed, we found a quiet place for a late lunch before we arrived into Portomarin for the night and the rain set in for the evening.
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