After our none-walking day in Coimbra we returned, with somewhat of a vengeance, to the task of walking the Camino today. We were up and out by about 08:15. There were no breakfast facilities at our hotel, but we had coffee and a nibble at a small cafe just opposite. Getting out of Coimbra was somewhat difficult because, as so often happens on this Camino, there seems to be several routes. The first route we followed just seemed completely wrong, it was going in totally the wrong direction. Looking closely at the route shown on a map it seemed that it would like to take you all around the town and cathedral district that we’d looked at yesterday. Eventually we found a satisfactory route, initially by the river and canal, past the station and eventually out into the country.
We strode out at a steady pace, overtaking some other pilgrims stopping on the way for coffees, etc as necessary.
At Santa Luzia a big market in the centre of the town was just finishing. All the stallholders were clearing away their stalls. It looked as if it had been a big event. We saw Erña and Jurgen, from Holland and Denmark, from time to time, near here. The route then followed a track through a eucalyptus forest.
Just as we rejoined a paved road, after several kilometres of forest track, we saw two pilgrims approaching us from the opposite direction. Initially we thought that either they or is were lost. Almost as quickly we realised that they were pilgrims, but heading towards Fatima, which is now well south of us. We confirmed that with a few words, each wishing the others a good Camino and went on our ways. These are the first Fatima pilgrims we have definitely seen. We’ve seen plenty of signs pointing guards Fatima and some possible pilgrims, but these were definitely going there.
The new route we had just followed is to avoid an equally long walk totally avoiding the main road. It eventually took us into the smallish town of Mala, where we had delicious, freshly baked, sandwiches for lunch.
The last stretch was from Mala to Mealhada, which seemed to be fairly endless, very pretty through the various types of countryside but it took a long time. When we arrived at the Pension that we had chosen for the night we were told that it was full. That was a bit of a blow, as the next place was about 2km further on. However it turned out to be a far better place with very good facilities. We had a very good evening there, over a meal, with various other pilgrims. We had already come across most of them, but this was was the first time that we’d had time to talk together. Our group consisted of Barbara and myself, Les from Brighton, he’s only walking as far as Porto. Louise from Perth, Australia, and is hoping to walk to Santiago, but is having some pretty severe foot problems, and Alex, the youngest of the group at 42. He originally came from Sao Paulo, in Brazil, but now lives in Berlin, Germany. He was hurrying along as he was meeting sometime in Porto in a few days time. We will, hopefully, continue plodding along all the way to Santiago.
Another Wander Along The Camino 