Setting off again

CAMINO PORTUGUES Day 7

One of the most daunting things about the Camino for me is that every morning we have to get up, leave, and set off again. There is no time to look around a place properly and no time to rest properly. It's also an exciting feeling though, to be on our Way, and every day to inch a little further morthwards on the map towards Santiago.

Today was going to be quite a long one, and I was relieved that it was all misty outside when we woke up. The hostel owner had left a nice note on our "picnic" breakfast, which I shall add as an extra.

The path took us out of Santarem through the mediaeval pilgrims' gate and then steeply downhill to the floodplains of the Tejo. Yet again we were on dusty farm tracks, through vineyards and huge plantations of corn. The coolness of the morning was very welcome, but the mist had burned off by midday leaving us in another day of blistering heat with little shade and (after Vile de Figuera, where we had a coffee) nowhere to fill up our water bottles. It was lovely to find some blackberries to sustain us and some windfall peaches :-)

We walked 16.89 miles today to arrive at our accommodation for the night at Azinhaga, where we have a beautifully clean room all to ourselves (Covid rules again) and have had a healthy meal outside prepared by the owner who chatters away to us in Portuguese. We try to speak a (very) little back.

Two other pilgrims are here, from Germany -a couple called Birgitta and Conni. We are going to have breakfast with them tomorrow. Their date for arriving in Santiago is the same as ours, so no doubt we will be seeing them again along the Way.