Our goal for today was to travel 25 km to Palas De Rei. We woke up to find out that the water system was contaminated due to the torrential rain the night before (brown water coming from all faucets)

We left the town in darkness at 7:30. The way out was a long and arduous climb in the cool and overcast sky. Soon the light was visible and we had beautiful views around us.

After 8 km we hit our first town and street side cafe. It was packed with pilgrims. There were hundreds of pilgrims around us The majority had started in Sarai to do the last 100 km. Our quite paths felt crowded for once. A feeling so unfamiliar.

The path was a constant up and down. The weather got cooler and then warm and then cold again.

As we were entering town after 25 grueling km and 170 floors of climbing, I got word that my two brothers Barkat and Sikander have reached Madrid.

We hope to meet up with them tomorrow afternoon in Melide ( 15 km from Palas De Rei and only 50 km from Santiago).

Barkat will join us for our walk to Santiago, while Sikander will wait for us in Santiago. We are excited about the reunion!

After our longest day and longest distance it was nice to sit at the farm house and enjoy beautiful view and evening sun.

Fortunately for us our goal for today was the Portomarine which was 19 km. this would be our shortest distance the rest of the trip. We decided to leave an hour later as sun was coming up.

It was another beautiful day with lush paths. Now that we have crossed Saria, number of pilgrims on the path has increased exponentially. Number of cows in our path and their pies has also increased in Galicia.

Original city of Portomarine was drowned in 1956, and a new city was created just above in the hills.

After settling in and lunch we decided to go down to the bridge and look at the old town. A torrential rain started for next 45 minutes and we were stuck under a shelter as the water from town started to flood around us.

We officially crossed the 100 km marker today (every marker has been suspect so far – the numbers seems to go back and fourth).

We thought we were done with all the records. The longest day, the most miles, the longest climb, the highest point, the most strenuous climb. We were wrong!

Our plan was to take the path that would bypass Samos and take us to Saria and then on to Barbadelo to a 17th century farmhouse converted to an Albergue that was highly recommend. This meant a respectable 22 km day.

We once again woke up early and left our Albergue at 6:30.

At this point our detective Sakkar discovered that the name of the town did not match what we were expecting. We realized at that point that in the dark we had missed our turnoff point somehow. We were 9 km into our day. The other path was going to save us 7 km. We decided to take our lumps and continue forward to Samos and see the 9th century monastery.

This day was a perfect day for a hike. Beautiful views, lush paths, nice weather. Every thing was just perfect.

By the time we made it to Saria it was almost 3 pm and we needed our lunch and the cover another 5 km.

By the time we made it to Casa Carmen, our destination. It was 6 pm and 32 km with 173 floors climbed. This makes it our most miles and longest day of hiking. Hopefully Camino does not have too many more of these kind of surprises for us.

This post will be mostly pictures from yesterday.

As we leave in the morning.

Morning scenery and break.

The path and walk to La Faba.

Climbing to Galicia.

To the town of Ocebrero and continue on in rain.

The last break and final stretch of the day.

It is amazing how you lose track of time! Every once in a while, one of us will ask the other, what is today’s date? or what day it is? After doing the Camino for over a month we have lost track of what is happening in the world. We think in terms of easy days or hard days and km covered. Just this morning I realized that the football games were played on Sunday and I had no clue who won or lost.

Our plan for today was an easy day to get 16 km so we can begin our most strenuous climb of the Camino tomorrow, well rested.

Last night as we went out for dinner we took a peak at the town of Villafranca. It is not only a pilgrim town but also a tourist town for the locals as there are more hotels than albergue’s in town.

Since we had a short day planned, every one decided on an extra hour of sleep. We left our Albergue at around 7:15.

Our path was along the river beside the old highway.

It was a simple but beautiful walk to our next village of Trabadelo which turned out to have a saw mill.

Breakfast there was simple.

Enjoyed some beautiful flowers along the way. Here is sampling of it.

Along the way I discovered the mystery of a walnut.

Does any one knows this tree? The blossoms remind us of something from Dr. Suess.

As we neared our destination we saw this marker.

We are settled in our Pension for tonight as we have an early morning departure for a longer day!

Today we were going to start by climbing for a short while and then downhill to Molinseca and onward to Panforada. We calculated that to be around 22 km.

We left at 6:30 in the morning. The weather was cool and misty with cloud cover. It was very easy to see that we had left beautiful but flat Meseta behind.

The view was so gorgeous that I thought I had died and gone to heaven. It was one of those magical mornings when you realize why you are doing the Camino and why all the aches and pains are worth what you see. I am not sure if pictures can do justice to what we witnessed but here is my best attempt.

As you can see it was beyond words. It was tough walking downhill on loose rocks. We moved through Manjatin, Acebo, and Ambrose. The young group missed a turn and ended up going down the paved highway. We stuck to the beautiful downhill path. After 4 km we look down on the highway and there are 4 young adults walking down. Amazing that we run into each other like that. We all walked down together to next tow Molinseca. We had already done over 21 km by then our town was still supposedly couple of km away. It was already 2 pm and we were all hungry. Spanish siesta forces you to eat now or be forced to wait until 7. The kids decided to eat while the rest of us marched on. It turned out to be 28.5 km before we made it to Panferado. Hence the title Agony. It was slightly past 4 when we checked into our Albergue.

Few of us decided to go on and check out the beautiful castle in town. We then had one of the most wonderful home cooked meal in Spain at our private Albergue As I look at my meage we ended up with 32.5 km which makes this our longest day yet.