DAY 5 – To Azinhaga

We did have the dormitory to ourselves last night as we’d thought we might. There seemed to be a group of men in another room upstairs but ours stayed exclusive to us. We both slept well, each in our own bottom bunk. One thing that I haven’t mentioned about this trip is that when the sun shines it can be very warm but the evenings and dull days are cold.  Before going to bed last night we spent some time in a lounge , Barbara reading and me writing the blog. We were both cosily wrapped in our sleeping bags. That aside we both slept very well. Breakfast consisted of the usual cold meat and cheese etc. It was a very good spread and very filling.

Today we planned to walk to Azinhaga. We have booked at a small guest house, which has good reviews.  We soon rejoined the Camino route and walked out of Santarem. We knew that the town was built on higher ground than the surrounding area but were rather surprised just how high it was until we started down a very steep track taking us out of town.

 Looking back we could see the town walls towering above us. At the bottom we entered a long stretch of very flat land, walking through an agricultural area, mainly vineyards.  

It was a very nice walk for about an hour, not particularly sunny, rather dull but dry. At least to start with. We began to notice drizzle in the breeze prompting us to put on our lightweight wind/shower proof jackets. Shortly afterwards the rain started, strong enough to warrant getting out out large raincoats. Just in time as it turned out as the rain started in torrents. It poured for at least an hour, a deluge as Barbara described it, certainly the tracks we were walking on changed from being simply dusty to being extremely muddy. We carried on walking, we had to as there was no shelter anywhere, just wide open fields for miles in  directions adjacent to the River Tajo. It soon became necessary to use our walking poles for support as the mud was so slippery that it was difficult walking, sliding where it was flat and almost impossible to stand on a long downwards slope that we had to traverse.

Eventually we managed to reach a road that had a hard surface and we could walk more or less normally again. The rain however continued for a while longer before finally stopping. We eventually came to Vale de Figuirea, a small town at the top of a small hill. We had coffees and a small savoury snack each and then carried on. 

Our planning of those stage of the route revealed lots of inconsistencies in different descriptions of the route to take. It seems as if several major changes have been made in the route in recent years and some of the guides are incorrect. We simply followed the arrows which have been consistently good all the way from Lisbon so far. The initial stretch had been quite easy, the stretch in the rain and mud more difficult but very interesting, but the latter stretch became eventually rather tedious as we we were just waking seemingly endless straight, flat country lanes. We had one more break at Pombalino, where we left the Camino route to walk about a mile to our lodgings for the night.

Our place tonight is stunning, port of a large private house, fully fitted with everything you might need. We have a private bedroom about 30ft square with adjacent bathroom and shower. A large lounge with wood burning stove and a delightful evening dinner with our hosted Helena. She was assisted by a young Italian lady who seems to be here as part of her Tourism training program. We all had an enjoyable evening