We set off today with a totally clear, blue, sky and brilliant sunlight. As we tend to, we had decided to have breakfast on the trail. At the first village there was nothing available, but at the second village, Aguim, we had delicious sandwiches and coffees. The cafe was a little off the Camino track and we only found it by accident. They really need to put a sign on the Camino trail and they would get a lot of business. On through other places including Anadia, after we walked through a large, totally deserted sports and athletics complex. It had become a feature of this trip to suddenly come across large modern structures that seem to be completely unused and deserted, probably due to the economic crisis that hit Portugal a few years ago.
We continued steadily, coming across various odd features from time to time.
Things like a very artistic garden arrangement
the two headed goat,
footballing lions
and the dragon goalkeeper.
Later we stopped for a coffee break at another small village, Alfaloas, where the cafe owner, very kindly, gave us a leaflet for an albergue for tonight, and showed us her book of comments from other pilgrims, also stamping our credentials. While we were there we were joined by the youngest pilgrim that we’ve met so far on this trip, a young lady called Ava. She was originally from Belgium but currently living in Norway, and obviously wanted a chat with someone. She is walking the Camino by herself and camping out every night. Not something either of us would like to do, even in better weather than we’ve been having. It must be pretty horrible in the rain we’ve had over the last week or so. I heard, about a week ago that it’s been, officially, the wettest April in Portugal for many years.
We had a few more kilometres of countryside before our lunch in the early afternoon, again at a very nice little cafe with a very welcoming owner, she actually gave us two very nice meringues on the house.
Somewhere along the route we passed a rather surprising, very modern, structure. This is a communal wash house for the village with the water being supplied from the local stream.
It seems rather a throwback to mediaeval times, but it is obviously very new. We’ve seen many other similar structures before, most villages have them, but most look very old and unused.
The other item we saw was this Camino marker. One part of it shows the direction to take on the Camino, but the other gives the distance to Santiago de Compostela as 303kms.
As most guides quote a distance of just over 600km between Lisbon and Santiago it means that we are just about halfway there. By evening we definitely will be.
The guide we’re using describes the next stage into Agueda as a long slog through an industrial area. That sums it up entirely. It was a hard uphill climb through factories and warehouses, followed by similar downhill stretch into the centre of Agueda, followed by another long, steep uphill stretch to our albergue.
We soon checked in, the receptionist mentioning that another Englishman, Les, had already checked in. Later, as I caught up with my laundry requirements, he and Barbara walked back down the hill to the local Lidl to get two bottles of wine and some nibbles for later in the evening. We also ordered some takeaways to be delivered as an evening meal. High living on the Camino – partly to celebrate the halfway point, mainly for the hell of it. We were also joined by Bernard, from Germany, whose English improved greatly as the evening wore on and the wine took effect.
All of us were fairly tired and retired to our rooms by about 8:30, me to work on this blog and Barbara to catch up with The Archers on the BBC Radio iPlayer.
Another Wander Along The Camino 