I awake in the dorm, my mind skips around in the dark, the muffled light snoring entering my ears through my plugs is a comforting sound, but not enough to send me back to sleep. The last few days have seen our little group become very close. Tomorrow is the beginning of the end of that particular form, and the end of 28 days of walking for me. The thought of this starts some waves of overwhelming emotions.
Today is the last big day before arriving in Santiago. 29 km, 6 hours walking straight. With breaks, it ends up being more like an 8 hour day. Breakfast in cafe central from the night before is a "Napolitano": a pan au chocolat, and a cafe con leche, with milk always because the Spanish coffee is, let's be charitable here, more drinkable with milk. Our small group joins up with the Spanish couple from the previous night who are having breakfast outside their hotel, a place that looks like The Overlook Hotel had a lovechild with a brutalist Soviet block of flats.
My French walking companion and I decide to leave early to avoid the crowds. It takes us about an hour to pass most of them in the dark before we're ahead of the pack. Like the Tour de France, but with trekking poles, backpacks with shells hanging off them and dorky outdoor clothing. When we finally get to the top of the hill, we're almost at the sunrise, it's marvellous view, and we're almost on our own. We stop at a cafe for breakfast, others catch up.
I'd heard about the crowds starting in Sarria, and to some degree I was prepared mentally for it. I'd not walked the three plus weeks that the full-timers had, but it was a stark contrast between the quiet Galician countryside today. The walk is pretty our little group leaves after 8, and there are dozens of fellow pilgrims on the way out of Sarria. The vast majority are tourists, starting from Sarria. A beautiful sunrise passing through a pine tree is punctuated by dozens of photographers, including myself of course.
Sarria, my French walking companion and I decide, is the beginning of the end. For him, this is much enhanced, he has been walking since early September. Even I feel this, eleven days into my trip. The tourist pilgrims start in Sarria. They arrive en masse, and walk the bare minimum required to get their pilgrim certificate in Santiago.
Today is the first day I get to take it easy for the entire trip. There's a convergence of factors that allow this. Firstly, there's no "beat the heat" early start, as the temperature in the hottest part of the day is early twenties. Secondly, I'm not racing to get a place in a municipal albergue. My French walking companion and I have a date with a mother/son from Utah to watch the sunrise from the mountain in O Cebreiro.