It’s All In The Game

CAMINO FRANCÉS – Day 27: Monday 5 May 2025 – O’CEBREIRO to SARRIA (40 [+2] kilometres)

The Galician weather, arriving usually from across the Atlantic, is renowned for its volatility, and I was always aware that to walk the entire 800 kilometres or so of the Camino Francés without experiencing rain was a virtual impossibility. Today, on my first full day in Galicia, the heavy showers duly arrived: in actual fact we had a bit of everything, weather-wise, on the trail today – early morning mist, swirling clouds, a cold wind (even requiring gloves first thing), the said showers, and then some sunshine to finish as I approached Sarria. For us hill walkers this changeability is indeed all in the game.

Through all of these forces of nature I managed to keep going today – starting in the pre-dawn murk, and going for around eight hours until mid-afternoon, and covering around 40 kilometres of the Camino path, so pretty much a marathon. In doing so I combined two of the shorter suggested daily stages into one, putting me a day ahead of my schedule, with the intention of having an extra night in Santiago de Compostela next weekend, at the end of the trek – all being well, that is. Due to the weather and my haste today I shot a limited number of photos, but here goes with a selection.

Having arrived in Sarria, I have now completed the fourth of the five sections of the walk that I used during my planning for the Camino Francés. My sections make use of the 33 daily stages set out in my guidebook (by John Brierley): they are not exactly equal in length or time, but tend to end at major milestones on the route, namely the cities of Logroño, Burgos and León, and, in today’s case, the town of Sarria. This hiking centre is where the ‘one-week’ Camino walkers join the action, so I am told to expect a busier pathway, much excitement and disappointment as personal dramas unfold on the trail, and greater difficulty securing overnight accommodation (although I am now booking ahead where possible to ameliorate the risks of the latter). But before I sign off for the day, my vital statistics at the end of my fourth section of the walk read (approximately): 661 kilometres (413 miles) of the Camino path covered, and around 9,500 metres climbed. I have walked around 160 hours (inclusive of stops en route), over a period of 27 days (including my three ‘Rest Days’).

I chose my Blog heading today, ‘It’s All In The Game’, as an acknowledgement of the variables, particularly the weather, that fall outside of one’s control when walking – really with the sentiment of accepting whatever obstacles are encountered and getting on with the day. The song, from which the title is taken, is a number recorded by US soul and R&B artist Tommy Edwards from 1958, and it became the first single by an African-American to hit the top of the US Billboard Hot 100. The song has an interesting history, as the wordless (and title-less) music was composed in 1911 by Charles G Dawes, who went on to become US Vice President under Calvin Coolidge, with the lyrics being added by Carl Sigman in 1951. The song was recorded that year by a number of artists, including Edwards, but it was his rearrangement of the number in 1958 in a more contemporary style that brought the song to mainstream attention, and also led to many other older songs being re-recorded with a ‘rock and roll’ influence. The song itself went on to be covered by many other artists, including (and most notably as far as the UK is concerned) by Cliff Richard.