I decided last night to walk to my own pace today. I think it's going to be one of the learning experiences with more people around. It is very enjoyable to connect with others as I walk but it can make the day much harder in terms of walking. We need to cover 33.6kms to reach Ponte de Lima today. Everyone else that I have spoken with in the albergue is only doing half that. Carlos and I set out at 7am. We have developed a good walking routine and we both like to do the majority of the distance in the morning so we set out to get two thirds done by lunch.
As I have traveled north through Portugal a few things have changed. The term for an espresso that I have used since Lisbon is regarded with disdain here in the north. I found that out yesterday and it explains why I was starting to have trouble with a phrase that had been working so well for me. I can also hear that the greetings are pronounced differently here, I suppose it's my musical background but I can hear the accents even though I don't understand the words. The landscape is changing too. For some reason the regional differences seem more remarkable because I have walked through them.
A lesson learnt today: When an apple on the side of the road reminds you of a golf ball don't assume your waking pole will function as a golf club. This may have limited application for you, but keep it in mind just in case. I now have only one rubber pole cap.
The day's walking passes well. We slow down in the middle of the day and take a long break around lunch.
We arrive in Ponte de Lima at 6pm. It's a pretty town by a river with a number of historic buildings. There is a festival on today and the street is filled with a sideshow alley. The albergue is the biggest I've been to so far, with 60 beds in three rooms. It's nearly half full when we get there, I get bed number 28.
We meet a number of people and end up having dinner in a Spanish and English speaking group. I am trying to add some Spanish words to my vocabulary as we will be in Spain in a few days time. It's fun to try to say words that use sounds not made in English. Roncesvalles, a Spanish town on the camino Francis, is a killer.
Day 19 ends with a hostel curfew at 10pm.
For me that means bed, for the rest of the town it means the party is just warming up. I may try the ear plugs tonight.
Today's photos:
1. There's no bull fighting in this part of the country, perhaps I can see why.
2. A cork tree: beautiful and not a gum.
3. Walking past a fire. I put two out in Porto, but this one is a little beyond me.
4. Santiago, the saint, and a fire above the village.
5. Resting after 30kms. Someone to put the grapes in my mouth would have been perfect.
6. The bridge at Porte de Lima
7. The view of the town from the Albergue.
The start today is slow. I walk with Carlos, a man from Luxembourg and a woman from Spain. After a long break for breakfast we start splitting up. The Spanish woman is on her second day and decides to shorten her walk and take it more slowly, so we say goodbye. We part with the man at São Pedro de Rates when he takes the coast route and we take the central. It's another hot day, 33 degrees. When we stop for lunch we decide to take the scenic detour which will make it a 30km day.
Just before lunch I have my first wildlife encounter. I discover a one metre snake two steps in front of me as it makes its way across the road. I have no idea if it is venomous, but fortunately neither of us is interested in finding out.
Through the course of the day I manage to put a small blister on my heel, proving that the physical challenge of the camino is still a reality.
The scenic extra takes in a climb to the top of Monte Franqueira which is 295 metres high. The views are great, although the smoke haze shortens them considerably. I quite enjoy walking up hills now, far more than going down them.
We reach Barcelos around 6pm and have a look around the churches as we make our way towards the albergue. It's a donation based hostel and we get the last two beds. There are about 16 people here, with a couple more arriving later and taking up some floor space. After shower it's time for dinner. I had a pilgrims meal for lunch so I am not that hungry. It was a nice soup, some rustic bread and my second dish of bacalhau. Dinner ends up being toasted sandwiches, a cultural coup.
Day 18 ends with a birthday party for one of the pilgrims, originally from Russia. Most of the people we met today will walk a shorter stage tomorrow so it will be interesting to see who we meet next along the way.
Today's photos:
1. The monastery.
2. A tiled house.
3. Walking across an old bridge, definitely in rural Portugal.
4. Someone decided that the doll was to heavy to carry to Santiago?
5. The view from the top of today's optional extra hill climb.
6. The church at the top of the hill.
7. Barcelos.
8. A 14th century cross.
We leave at 7am. The streets are deserted and the city is quiet. The sky is mostly blue, with a dirty halo on the horizon. Yesterday the sky was totally smoke covered and there was even ash falling like snow, so it's nice to see that the fires near here are under control. There are now fires in Agueda, which we passed through several days ago.
The rest day has left me feeling fresh and we set a fast pace for the first two hours. I generally walk ahead, with Carlos a little behind. I stop for a coke and leave my gear outside in a prominent place, so Carlos will see it. Not prominent enough. As I come out of the shop he disappears over the hill. I start after him but when I reach the top of the hill I can't see him. After another 10 minutes I still can't see him and I start to wonder if he has stopped for a break too.
I am now not sure if he is behind me so I stop at a font and take a seat in the shade. It is one of the few potable water fonts that I have seen. There is a queue of people with large plastic bottles waiting to fill them so after a few minutes of just sitting on the bench I decide to fill my water pack too. A conversation takes place around me and although I can't make out the words I can see that it involves whose turn is next and who is after who. I manage to establish that I am next, using Portuguese! Four words can go a long way. Even though I am sure it is horrible and there are a few supporting hand gestures, I am a little pleased with myself. The water is good, very good. Muito bom.
As I walk to catch up to Carlos I start to meet a number of pilgrims starting out from Porto today. This stage of the journey is going to be very different from Lisbon to Porto. I get a chance to chat with a few people as I walk.
Carlos spots me from inside a cafe and so the mystery is solved. He was ahead of me the whole time and both of us walked fairly fast trying to catch the other. The worker at the cafe is a Camino supporter and tells us about a local monastery that has recently opened an albergue. It is donation rather than fee and it's only a couple of kilometres short of our intended destination.
We reach the monastry at Vairão at 2:45pm, having walked 26kms. There is a small, fresh fire on the horizon, but nothing to worry about. We check in at a nearby house with a couple who are clearly very pleased that the monastry is now being used in this way. It has been here since the tenth century and was the local school until four years ago. It open as an albergue in July and I am pilgrim #190. By 3:30 I have showered, washed and hung my clothes, and can have a little siesta. By dinner time there are two other pilgrims here and we end up eating together at a local restaurant. It seems that the other ten or so pilgrims went to the town we had been intending to go to. I think we found the better place. Much of the evening's conversation is in Spanish so I get a chance to pick up a couple of words. The road to Santiago is going to be a lot more social from this point on an I am looking forward to this new aspect of the Camino.
By the end of day 17 I have now walked 400kms towards Santiago.
Today's photos:
1. The church tower I climbed yesterday
2. Two churches, one for nuns and one for priests, separated by a 1 metre wide building.
3. Some street art on an abandoned building.
4. The church at Vairão, with a panoramic view.
5. The view. I can see a yacht sailing in the Atlantic ocean. I have a blurry 20x photo to prove it.
6. The view out the hall window of the monastery.
7. The view out of my bedroom window.
Here are some photos, but you really have to see this city to appreciate it's beauty.
Day 16 has been a day of walking without getting any closer. Enjoyable but I am ready to move on.
1. Cathedral from the top of the clergy tower.
2. Me at the top of the tower.
3. Inside the most amazing bookstore in the world.
4. Outside the most amazing bookstore in the world.
5. My favourite of Porto's many churches.
6. Same church. Igreja de Sto Ildefonso.
7. The resurrection, stained glass inside the church.
8. The ascension, at the back of the church.
9. Porto, from the top of the monastery tower on the South bank.
10. Porto river bank.
Today we plan to make it to Porto. It is a long and hilly stage. We have over 34kms to cover through mostly urban areas, with two forest sections on the old pilgrimage road to bring respite from the concrete, asphalt and cobblestones. Cobblestones are horrible to walk on, I suspect it is why so many old people we pass by are limping.
We leave at 7am and ascend the hill out of the city of São João de Madeira. We pass the attractive blue tiled mother church as it rings it's bells for 7:30am. We reach a point where the arrows disappear and have to search around for them. We eventually work out that someone has sprayed over them with a silver paint that nearly matches the concrete. Thanks for that. Once we are on to this new challenge we find the way again fairly easily. Who ever it was gives up after a few hundred metres and we find the familiar yellow again. A small exception to the wonderful kindness and helpfulness I have seen from Portuguese people over the last two weeks.
By 9am we reach our first small section of Roman road. The big stones are not easy to walk on. There is a track off the road and into the forest. My guide mentions it so we take it. It is an enchanting piece of woodland forest but it only lasts a couple of hundred metres until it brings us back out to the track, still in view of where we entered. If only more of Portugal's forests were like this.
By 10am the cool and easy walking of the morning is starting to give way to the heat of the day. It will reach 30 degrees again today, so it's nice to have done 14kms in temperatures under 20.
There is a smoke haze on the horizon and enough smoke in the air to slightly tint the sun. The news this morning said there were 20 active fires in the country, with two if them being around Porto.
After several breaks we reach the monastery at Grijó just before 1pm. A shaded piece of grass gives us a half way rest before we find a cafe for lunch.
At 2:30 we are off again, through suburban alleys and lanes. As we reach the base of our second major climb for the day we enter a forest section again. This one lasts for several kilometres and includes some Roman road, and eucalyptus trees which I am fairly sure neither the Romans nor the Medieval pilgrims saw.
The final 6.5kms are through the southern bank the city of Porto. It's Portugal's second largest city and people here are used to seeing pilgrims. Most people who walk the Portuguese Way start from the cathedral here, which is on the other bank of the river. When we reach the bridge and lookout across to the old city we stop and sit down to take it in. It is an incredible sight. I think I can make out the cathedral, but there are several churches and monasteries in view, so I am not completely sure. The bridge across the river is frightening. A very low railing and a drop that brings joy to my love of heights. I can't walk in the middle of the bridge because there are two metro lines. Train or fall, it's a tough choice. I put on a brave face and smile for the camera.
On the other side we are approached by two Italian guys who are starting out tomorrow. They are staying at the volunteer firefighters tonight. It doesn't have a shower, which doesn't bother these two, at least not today. Perhaps it will in a few days time. Our plan is to find a room with a shower and use tomorrow to explore Porto before heading off for Santiago the next day. Pilgrims have a certain look and we spot several more as we walk around.
By the time we find a place to stay it's after 8pm. Even though we have been walking for 13 hours a shower has amazing rejuvenating abilities. We head back out to find somewhere for dinner. We are staying close to one of the big churches, this one has a tower, so we should be able to find our way back. The streets have so many winding lanes and hills that it is easy to loose yourself. I had to use GPS to find our hotel. We spot a church up on the top of another hill so we walk up. On the way we pass a jazz bar that has a Fado performance at ten. We find a cheap place to eat and then head back to the bar. We have to buy a drink to sit and listen so I get a port. The singer is female and has an amazing voice. The port is good too. In Coimbra only men are allowed to sing Fado. Carlos is a musician and plays bass in a band, The Levitantes ( http://thelevitants.bandcamp.com/ ). We have talked a lot about music along the way and one of his must do activities is to hear a female Fado singer. It's taken 376 kilometres, but it is now 'mission accomplished'.
Day 15 ends at midnight.
Today's photos:
1. Woodland detour
2. Monastery at Grijó
3. Roman road, with gum trees
4. Porto
5. Porto
6. The bridge is only 45 metres high.
7. Porto, looking south.
8. Fado
We are walking through hills today, heading to São João de Madeira. We start at 7:30 after a quick coffee and ham pastry for breakfast. There is smoke sitting on the horizon, like bad smog. We rise 100 metres over the first few kilometers as we head out of Albergaria-a-Velha and towards Albergaria-a-Nova. The guide says that we will be in a forest section just after we pass a church at the halfway point between the town's but we seem to have missed the arrow. The road will take us there, though it is a little longer and less enjoyable. Just as we think we must be getting close to the town a yellow arrow points us into the eucalyptus forest. It doesn't seem to be in the same position as the map but we have had these small discrepancies before. After two weeks of following yellow arrows we have learnt to trust them when it doesn't agree with what we see or with what think we know.
After a while we can see the town through the forest and then the arrows disappear. We reach a fork in the track and have to decide to head towards the town or continue to walk parallel to it. A woman passes by and confirms that the town we see is A-a-Nova, so we take that track. After 200 metres we are on a small dirt path. We turn a corner and enter the back of a shack. With the dog barking I walk between the shack and outhouse and confirm that there is no road in this dwelling's front yard. We back track to the edge of the cornfield and take a look towards the town. I can see that there are power lines running towards the town, which mean a road. If we can get across three corn fields we will be back on track. There are gaps in the corn so I beat a path through the weeds and we eventually emerge near the road, wet and with a few blackberry scratches. After we climb through a grape trellis we are back on track. As we cross the train tracks the arrows reappear, and I can see that we should have taken a much earlier track through the forest. Hindsight is wonderful.
The rest of the day's walking gets harder as it gets hotter. Today's temperature is 29 degrees. Some of our walking is alongside a train track. We see a train on it just before we walk on it but not for the rest of the day.
At 2pm we stop at the town before our destination, Oliveira de Azeméis. We meet a Korean girl heading south. She has been sick and staying in Porto a week. It's fun to share stories and recommendations for places to stay. We tell her about how few walkers to Fatima there are ahead and which places are really worth seeing if she is going to skip parts, which she is considering.
We start our final 10km stretch at around 4pm and reach our destination at 7:30pm. We have walked 29kms today. It would have been longer if a woman hadn't called out to us as we walked past her corner house. She directed us down to the right of her house when we were heading straight ahead. People here are amazingly helpful.
I find a hotel and Carlos goes to the volunteer firefighters, as there are no albergues here. We will meet in the morning.
This has been day 14, I have been walking for two weeks and I have covered 342kms; plus detours, wrong turns, sight seeing and evening strolls.
Today's photos: 1. Sunrise through smoke. 2. Making a new path through the corn. 3. Walking the train line. 4. Spot the arrows. 5.An old bridge. 6. Nearing our destination. 7. The church in the square (which is actually a circle).
Today's stage is only 16km so we leave around 8am after breakfast at a bakery. The town council have decorated four streets with umbrellas, which looks nice, and fake grass which looks less nice.
This is hilly country, a mix of houses, an industrial zone and a few crossings of the major highway. We cross over what may be a Roman bridge and the under two newer ones. We then reach a point where the old arrow, which agrees with my guidebook, has been crossed out and several new arrows point to the highway. After we hesitate for a little we decide to go with the highway. It's a big bridge across a valley. We see the old way go under the bridge and then across to an old bridge over the river. It looks like nicer walking. As we get further along we can see why we are on this detour. The middle of the bridge is missing. It would have been time for a swim or a long walk back to the new bridge. Good decision to go with the new on this one.
In one of the little villages we pass a woman walking from doing her washing. We have seen a number of communal washing areas in villages but this is the first time we have seen that they are still being used. This woman has walked at least 500 metres when we loose sight of her. It's probably not as far for most of us from the laundry to the line. And yes I have carried washing to our line at home, at least once.
We walk through some more eucalyptus. These trees are everywhere, both as plantations and dispersed among other trees. While I like the smell I do wonder if they are taking over Portugal. As we enter Albergaria-a-Velha I can see smoke on the horizon again. There have been fires around the country everyday since I have arrived. This one is a few days north of us. We have lunch and then find our accommodation. Carlos finds a free basement in the parish house. I pay for a room as I still feel like a shower and a mattress. The options available to pilgrims are different in every town and strangely it is not consistently better the further north we go, at least not south of Porto. It has been a very enjoyable experience to walk a path that few tread. It is definitely easier on a higher budget, for which I am grateful. The church in this town uses it's real bells, for which I am also grateful. Inside it is decorated differently than any I have seen so far, quite Baroque. I managed to spend a little bit of time there in the afternoon, I have a vague awareness of it being a Sunday.
Today's photos: 1. Breakfast time in Agueda. 2. A village past the bridges. 3. The bridge adventure we didn't have. 4. Washing time, old school. 5. More Australian trees. 6. Smoke on the horizon. 7. Inside the church.
