Sarrià → Portomarín

The first stage of the final 100 km, and the one where you notice the change. The trail is busier now. Groups that started in Sarria this morning walk with clean packs and fresh boots. The rhythm of the Camino shifts from the quiet fellowship of the long-distance walkers to something larger and more varied. Some veterans find this jarring. Others welcome the energy. The Camino has always been a shared path; it simply has more people sharing it from here.

The walking itself is quintessential Galicia. The route passes through a rolling patchwork of small farms, eucalyptus groves, chestnut forests, and stone hamlets connected by sunken lanes and ancient paths. The village of Barbadelo, about 4 km in, has a beautiful 10th-century Romanesque church set among trees, one of the quiet gems of the Galician stages. Beyond it, the trail winds through Morgade and Ferreiros, tiny settlements where the bar may or may not be open and the pace of life has not changed much in decades. The countryside is green, intimate, and softly beautiful. The horreos (raised stone granaries on mushroom-shaped legs) appear beside farmhouses at every turn, a signature of the Galician landscape.

Portomarin is unlike any other town on the Camino. The original medieval village sat on the banks of the Rio Mino, but in the 1960s the Belesar reservoir was built and the old town was flooded. Before the waters rose, the most important buildings were dismantled stone by stone and rebuilt on the hillside above. The Romanesque Iglesia de San Nicolas, a fortress-church with a rose window and crenellated roofline, was moved in its entirety and now dominates the relocated town square. When reservoir levels drop in late summer, the ghostly foundations of the old village emerge from the water, streets and walls visible below the surface. The approach to Portomarin crosses a long modern bridge over the reservoir, and the climb up the staircase into the town is a memorable arrival.