Day 10 of the Camino Eclipse Diaries: 22.2 km / 13.8 miles from Sarria to Portomarín, past the 100 km marker and up the stairs into a town that was moved, stone by stone, to higher ground.
Sarria to Portomarín · 22.2 km / 13.8 miles
Sarria is where the Camino starts over for many pilgrims. It is the last big town before the 100 km mark, the minimum distance on foot to earn a Compostela, so the morning was full of fresh boots and new faces. We climbed the old stone stairs out of town and joined them. Not long after, we passed the marker for the last 100 km to Santiago, a good place to stop and take stock of what we had already carried from León.
It was a gentle, green day. Horses came to the fence to say hello, a little black cat settled into a lap at a café stop, and an ancient tree shaded the path. We walked between golden harvested fields and down narrow lanes lined with old stone walls, and stopped more than once for group photos. Then the land opened up above the Miño.
In the early 1960s the Belesar dam flooded the old riverside town of Portomarín. Before the water rose, the people moved their town about 500 m / a third of a mile uphill, and they took their Romanesque church of San Nicolás with them. Each stone was numbered, taken down, carried up the hill and set back in place. You can still see the numbers on the walls. The reservoir was low when we arrived, and the old riverbed and the remains of the drowned town lay open below the bridge. We crossed, climbed the long stairway into town and ended the day in front of that church.
“You must save what you can of your life; you mustn’t lose it all simply because you’ve lost a part.”
Henry James, The Portrait of a Lady (1881)
“See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.”
Isaiah 43:19
If the place you are walking away from right now, a season of your life or a version of yourself, were going under water tomorrow, what would you number, carefully, stone by stone, to carry to higher ground? And what new thing might God be doing on the other side?
Walk the whole road with us
This is Day 10 of the Camino Eclipse Diaries: sixteen days and about 257 km / 160 miles on the Camino Francés from León to Santiago. A new day comes out every Thursday and Sunday on our YouTube channel, our Facebook Page and Instagram. Missed the start? Watch Day 0: a total eclipse over León, Day 1: Listening, Day 2: There Is No Hurry, Day 3: Up into the Mountains, Day 4: The Cruz de Ferro, Day 5: Templars and Vineyards, Day 6: Taste and Sound, Day 7: Overcoming Adversity, Day 8: One Step Enough and Day 9: An Undivided Heart.
Walk with us in 2027
Angela and I will host a small group from Porto to Santiago on the Camino Portugués, 4–20 April 2027, in a Holy Year. Come to a free Zoom information evening at 7:00 pm Mountain on Wednesday 18 November, 16 December or 20 January. Read about the 2027 Camino Portugués.
Begin something new. Walk the Finisterre–Muxía route free in the Camino for Good app: your everyday steps move you along the real Camino, 215 km (133 miles) through 43 towns. No card, no trial, nothing to cancel. Start the free Finisterre route.
Buen Camino,
James M. Gehrke, MS, DMin, and Angela Gehrke, your hosts
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