Day Five - walking from Sarria to Portamarin

Murphy's law!!  The night you want to have a lovely solid sleep you achieve anything but!!!  So frustrating but sadly I hardly slept a wink last night, and David didn't sleep well either!  Our friend Olive had problems too, but her husband seemed to be the only one of the four of us who got his beauty sleep!!!  Anyway, we were up and ready (minus being 'bushy tailed') to start today's walk to Portamarin.  Our first challenge of the day was to ascend very steep steps to take us into Sarria old town.  That took our breath away, and seemed to set the tone for the day!  We were very fortunate as the morning low cloud and mist made way for a beautiful day with virtually perfect walking conditions!  We followed the famous yellow arrows of the Camino, walking through beautiful rural countryside, along many winding country paths, literally uphill and down dale!!!  Babbling streams ran by our footpath, and some we had to cross using stepping stones.  Panoramic landscapes, alpine type wild flower meadows, wild flower hedgerows, charming rustic farmyard buildings, all made our walk special. This beautiful green pastoral landscape reminding us of our own 'back yard' !  It was a tough walk though as there were many steep ascents and descents!  The steepest descent of the day rapidly dropped us from the hillsides into Portamarin, where we crossed the river and had to climb more steep stone steps into the old town to find our hotel!    

Tonight we are staying in a lovely little hotel right on the river, which is actually a giant reservoir!  We're so pleased as we both have a balcony overlooking the waters!  We felt much better after a bath and a change of clothes!  The Spanish omelet for tea in a little restaurant in the old town went down well!  Now we are hoping for a good nights sleep, as tomorrow we have to do it all again!  :)

Section from our walk book showing the ups and downs of today's walk!  I put my MapMyWalk on to record mileage.  It grumbled a bit, but recorded 14.3 miles today

View from our hotel!  

The steep stone steps greeted us at the end of our walk!!!  How mean!!!!!! Pant!!!!!!!