We love walking, especially multi-day hikes so we thought we’d better give one of the most famous walks in Europe a crack and do a section of the Camino de Santiago. We walked 115kms of the Frances way from Sarria to Santiago de Compostella over 5 days and nights. Our days on the Camino had a nice easy rhythm, waking each day around 7am, doing our stretches, and heading off munching apples and bananas a little after 8am.  Our first mission each morning was to find a little café in one of the rural villages along the camino for tea and coffee then we’d keep walking, nibbling nuts and oatmeal biscuits until our lunch stop around noon. Our go to lunch was the Spanish tortilla or an omelette bocadillo and a bottle of Aquarius water which has hydrolytes in it.

We’d walk another few hours after lunch until we reached our stop for the night – we usually got in around 3-4pm. We walked between 20-30 km / 6-8 hours a day and a lot of the track was steep up or downs and mostly rocky or muddy as we had a fair bit of rain. We really enjoyed not having to drive, read maps or navigate – all we had to do was follow the yellow arrows (there was a moment of confusion in one village when we accidentally followed a tourist wearing a blue t-shirt with a big yellow arrow on it, and another hiccup when we chose the less travelled camino path marked ‘difficult’ and found ourselves stumbling down a rocky river bed) but otherwise all we had to do was put one foot in front of the other and let our minds wander away.

There were all types of people walking of all ages – from a big school group of teenage girls to families with kids, or dogs, in three wheeler prams, to singles ambling along, multi-generational families and couples. About half were carrying their packs, half had just day packs and were making the most of the luggage services which will take your bags to the next town. Half were Spanish speaking, the rest a mix of French, English, Americans, German and a few other languages we were not too sure about (Russian? Portuguese? Slovakian?). It was busy, apparently the section from Sraria is the busiest as you have to do at least 100kms to qualify for your Camino certificate and everyone wants to walk into Santiago de Compostella to attend the pilgrim mass at the end. As we weren’t collecting the stamps or attending the mass we perhaps should have chosen a quieter section to do – but it was magnificent seeing  the buzzing Cathedral in Santiago de Compostella at the end of our walk.

Here’s a summary of our days and where we stayed on the Frances way from Sarria to Santiago

Day 1 – Sarria to Portomarin 24 kms

We started in Sarria and stayed the night at the Pension Rua Peregrino, a simple but clean pension on the camino. The pension is in a quiet cul de sac with plenty of parking and they let us leave our car our front for the week at no charge which was a real bonus. Our first day was 24kms from Sarria to Portomarin starting from the Monastery of Magdalena. We were worried that we’d struggle to find our way but there are so many yellow arrows, scallop shell sign posts and backpack toting pilgrims you can’t possibly get lost! We had a fair few hills to tackle, erroneously took the ‘difficult’ route and had to scrabble down what looked like a river bed at one point but otherwise the going was fairly smooth. The weather was 7c in the morning when we headed off and got to about 16c by the afternoon. It rained on and off all day so we kept our garbage bags on over our backpacks and this limited conversation a bit so I listened to a podcast and We came in to the lovely little town of Portomarin around 3pm and used the town map to locate our pension – Hotel Porto Santiago in Portomarin which was tucked in a side street high up in the little  town (which once used to be on the river but was moved up the hill to avoid flooding) and had lovely clean rooms plus a delightful courtyard, kitchen and we grabbed some supplies from the supermercado and cooked up pasta and salad for dinner.

Day 2 – Portomarin to Palas de Rei 24 km

We were up early and out by 8.30 after a cup of tea and coffee at the pension. There were lots of big groups walking today – including a high school group carrying boom boxes and the going was quite muddy due to more rain. We walked in to Palas de Rei around 3pm and found our ‘Pension and Bar O’Cruceiro’ run by a delightful couple. They just have two rooms at the back of their bar, and put on a complimentary continental breakfast in the bar from 7am for peregrinos to start the day.  We were super hungry and didn’t know how we would be able to wait for the restaurants to open at 8.30 pm so we were delighted to stumble across a tiny little café in town called simply, Pasta,  owned by Brits who serve dinner from 5.30 – 8.30 – just perfect for hungry Peregrinos. It only seats about 16 people and we had to wait at the bar downstairs for a table upstairs but met some lovely Americans then a British-Australian couple and enjoyed a good chat.

Day 3 – Portomarin to Arzua 29 kms

We enjoyed juice, coffee, bread ham and cheese at the Bar Cruceiro then hitched on our packs and headed off for our longest walk day with 30 kms to cover.   We walked the first 15kms to Melide on fairly good tracks and a bit of up/down hills and stopped for lunch in the busy main street of Melide.. We still had another 14 kms ahead of us so kept walking through the town and back out onto country lanes and through little medieval villages and pine forests to our stop for the night: Teriboa Base camp on the outskirts of Arzua.  This big campground has little ‘dog kennel’ style huts lined with timber. with two single beds inside and a little veranda with two deck chairs. Teeny tiny but cosy and sufficient for crashing after a big days walk. There’s a little shared toilet near the cabins and a big shared shower complex a little further away next to the restaurant and bar. We were ready for dinner at 5pm but the restaurant didn’t open until 8pm which was a long wait for weary walkers. There’s a mini-market at the service station next door but we didn’t have the legs to even walk that far! And the town bars were another 1km walk on – so we waited and enjoyed a good meal (finally) at the campground restaurant.

Day 4 – 19km Arzua to O’Pedrouzo

We were up early and walked in to the town of Arzua for coffee and tea and some apples and bananas to munch on our walk. Arzua is quite a large spread out town and we were happy to get back out in to the countryside. We enjoyed walking today without ponchos as the rain had eased off and  the countryside was pretty and often flat.  We passed lots of Horreos on this section – these curious structures, built to store grain and animal feed (often called a granary in English) are famous in northern spain – particularly in the Asturias and Galicia regions. We walked past Arua where we had tried to book to stay and saw there are only three little pensions here and the twin towns of O’Pino – O’Pedruso are only a little further on. We found ‘Pension Amenerial’ where we had a double room for the night in a hostel/style apartment. The pension had a little basic kitchen but we decided to eat out at a little Mexican café called O Escondido we passed coming in that looked like a lot of fun and was open early for dinner. There were a lot of peregrinos who’d had maybe one too many margaritas – we enjoyed some tasty tacos and guacomale and crashed,

Day 5 – 19 km O’Pedruso to Santiago de Compostela.

The last leg was in site and there was definitely an air of excitement on the track. The first part of todays walk was rather hilly, and the last part is quite suburban as you have to navigate your way up and in to the old town and the cathedral. We found our Hotel Santa Clara – a lovely clean spacious and quiet hotel that serves delicious breakfasts (for a fee) in the café on the ground floor overlooking a courtyard with a small pool. As soon as I saw the bed I fell face first on it and had a power nap then we showered and headed down to the Cathedral. A man was playing the Galician bagpipes in the tunnel leading to the Cathedral and I got goose bumps as we emerged into the square and saw the hundreds of pilgrims hugging, sharing a story, a moment or reflecting. The cathedral is big and imposing and we decided we’d gaze at it from the Mirador in Alameda park and picked up a bottle of wine, some local cheese and celebrated our walk looking over the spires of the Cathedral.

Our walk was wet, muddy, busy and hilly but oh so wonder-full! A few tips as takeaways:

• You only need two sets of clothing – one to walk in and one to change into when you arrive at the end of the day. Layers are best and if you’re walking when we did in May, it’s cold in the hills especially in the mornings so a puffer vest or jacket is a good addition and a silk scarf.
• Take a light but 100% waterproof jacket – the longer the better. Plus an over pack waterproof – we used strong large garbage bags as our waterproof ponchos – we carried 3 each, they weighed and cost nothing!
• If you want a private room and/or bathroom at night, I’d recommend booking ahead.
• You don’t need to carry a lot of heavy water –  only need one 500ml water bottle each – as you can refill from potable fountains on track or buy in the bars (€1) -the go to drink is Aquarius water which is like hydrolyte
• There are no public toilets on the camino. You can use the toilets at the cafes in the village if you are a paying customer.
• You don’t need to carry food on the walk as there are so many little bars or snack stands from Saria onwards selling nuts, fruit, cakes, sandwiches all at very reasonable prices.
• Each town we stayed in had a supermarket for dinner or breakfast supplies.
• Walking poles make navigating muddy descents and ascents easier.
• A long peaked hats keep the rain -and sun ( if you get any) off your face.  
• Pack a pair of comfy flip flops for your feet after a days walk (dirty shoes not allowed in accommodation).
• If your shoes are soaked stuff them with scrunched up old newspaper – often found outside supermarkets – it will soak up the moisture.