The Longest Trek and the Hottest Day . . .
The Wayward German Pilgrim, the Barking Dog, and the Small Miracle . . .
Amazing Samos . . .
Only Mad Dogs, Englishmen, and Canadian Peregrinos Go Out in the Mid-day Sun . . .
So many captions could describe Stage 29, it's impossible to choose one -- let me just start at the beginning ...
Knowing that it would be a scorcher of a day, and intending to avoid the hottest part of the day, your three peregrinos headed out good and early at 5:45 am. It was dark, but the stars shone, the path was parallel to the road, and our trusty headlamps showed us the way. Few cars were travelling yet. We had mapped out the scenic route; yes, a few kms longer than the main route, but more shady and it would take us past the medieval Benedictine Monastery at Samos. We were looking forward to the trek!
Our progress was, indeed, smooth until we arrived at the small and sleeping village of San Cristobo, down in the still-dark valley bottom. The shuttered stone houses were silently crowded along the ancient cobble-stoned main road through town; we quietly wended our way along and crossed the narrow bridge. A rooster crowed. Now we were confronted by a Y in the road before us -- were we to go left or right? We couldn't see any trusty Camino signpost or yellow arrow, which always show us the way. Suddenly, to our surprise, in the semi-darkness on the branch heading rightward, we spotted our first fellow-peregrino of the day, a middle-aged German woman plodding up the road (we recognized her from our Albergue last night; she certainly had headed out extra early this morning). So, naturally, we followed in her footsteps and then, with a merry "Buen Camino" greeting to her, we moved ahead of her on the path. Soon we left the village, walked through some trees, and then up past a farmyard, where a dog began barking loudly. It was not a friendly sound; he was making it clear that he was a watchdog on duty. We nervously made our way past him and continued a ways. Wait -- let me reassure our readers, here, that the dog was securely chained! Now we began to wonder if we were going in the right direction, so we stopped and consulted our cell phone maps. No, we were supposed to be following the river! Therefore, we would have to backtrack to the village, past the barking dog again! Meanwhile, the German woman had caught up to us and, so, we were able to inform her that she was headed in the wrong direction. We all trekked back down, and looked again at the Y in the road -- now that the light had improved, we were able to see a very faded yellow arrow directing us leftward! And so, we all continued on the correct path to Samos. Though we were delayed by the detour, we realized that it had resulted in saving a lot of time for the German woman!
Our path to Samos, along the river, was shaded by large old trees with wide gnarled trunks, many covered in ivy. Both sides of the trail were lush and green, dotted with brightly coloured wild flowers. We felt as if we were walking through the magical woods of "The Lord of the Rings."
We spent a couple of hours in picturesque Samos, having breakfast at a sidewalk cafe, attending Sunday morning mass at the Benedictine monastery, and taking a guided tour of the monastery. It's a very large, beautiful, and peaceful complex, but today has only eight resident monks, and one novice monk.
Leaving Samos, we followed the yellow arrows but somehow ended up inadvertently taking the longer alternate route to Sarria. By the time we arrived, our kms for the day added up to 35, making it our longest trekking day ever! And, it was the hottest day, too, at 35 degrees! As you can imagine, we were very relieved to reach our Albergue in Sarria.
