Today was good. Easy and MOSTLY DOWNHILL!!! Yeah, I got to let gravity assist almost all day!!! I started out and the weather, well, it was full-on Galician weather fit for the mountaintop… Cold, foggy, and windy. I bundled up, turned on the headlamp and headed out for a later start than normal so I could have natural light during the descent into Triacastela. In town I found a wonderful bacon, eggs, toast, and Colacao breakfast — a wonderful energy boost for the 2nd half of the day which started as a narrow river valley and opened into a beautiful valley with hamlets scattered around. Reading the map wrong I was getting frustrated at the apparent lack of progress when I rounded a corner and BAM! There was the monastery roof and it was only 10 minutes away. When the guidebook says it is hard to distinguish the monastery from the town, they are not kidding. That place at one time housed 500 monks! I did the tour — it is beautiful inside and not lavish like some cathedrals I’m not a fan of (COUGH Burgos COUGH) but simple and worthy of a place of worship, yet beautiful enough for monks to be able to call it home.
Today...
Today was a very welcome respite from climbs, long boring straights, & urban slogs. In a strange sense from here out it is like the hardships change and the trail prepares you for your arrival in Santiago!
Tomorrow I blow through Sarria onto a little hamlet past it and past the hordes of new arrivals.
📊 Camino Stats – Sun Oct 5, 2025
Day: 32
Location: Samos
Stage: FonfrÃa → Samos (~19.3 km, descent through Triacastela via the Samos variant)
Total walked: ~647 km
Remaining (of 769 km): ~122 km
% complete: ~84%
Average so far: 20.2 km/day
Needed average to finish by Oct 13: 122 ÷ 8 ≈ 15.3 km/day
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✨ Milestone Note
Long descent from the Galician ridge through Triacastela’s forests and hamlets.
Turned onto the Samos route, a peaceful valley walk following the river.
Arrival beneath the immense Monasterio de San Xulián de Samos, one of the oldest monastic centers in the Western world.
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