the ninth day of walking

Getting to Tomar has been a major achievement, not only have we walked 120 kms, climbed steep gravelly paths, walked through a eucalyptus forest, walked with and against traffic, through fields, orchards, olive groves and vineyards but we have reached this knights templar city for our two day rest. One of which we will use to visit Fatima.

Once again we faced high temperatures, so we left at sunrise and walked till it reached 30 degrees, this was about 10:30, a good hour before we had hoped, so after a break, with plenty of hydration, we pushed on for another hour and found a train station, two stops before our intended destination, we avoided about 5kms of walking on the highway. An unhealthy practice at the best of times… we did not fancy getting heat stroke on a major road…

We were lucky in several respects, a few interesting churches

…the welcome and concern shown to us by the locals we met… one of the churches was being mopped, the ladies welcomed us in, made us sit down and then blew kisses our way as they wished us well for our journey, the barman at our coffee stop filled our bottles with water and under charged us.

The terrain though very challenging was also varied and made us feel as if we were walking in Australia.

I suppose we have the last Camino for comparison so we know what we are capable of. Our 30 rule is paying off, nothing over 30 kms in one day and no walking in temperatures over 30… we look for alternatives and walk longer on a different day.

They come in threes…

In Italian the saying is “non c’è due senza tre”, meaning that you can’t have two things happening to you without a third…

I have been waiting for the third event since we left Madrid 10 days ago. Every time I descended stairs, or walked on uneven pavements or simply crossing the road. I had almost stopped thinking about till we were walking along minor & major country roads. The shoulders very narrow and the drivers going very fast! Even on dirt tracks, they drove slower, but very distracted… on phones, reading or looking for something. We have been feeling like we’ve been playing chicken without meaning to.

I kept thinking that I might trip and fall into the path of on coming traffic…

This morning though I felt no need to worry anymore… I got my third fall or should I say trip…

We were leaving town, trying to get into some sort of rythm… I was trying to capture the early morning vibes… bird song, sun, quaint houses and of course greeting the locals who were about.

and of course I tripped and fell forward, not as spectacularly as the two times in Madrid but enough to give the labourer a scare and for Bill to come racing towards me to help me up…

No great damage, a skinned hand and knee, a bruise to my hip and a major dint in my ego.

But I got my third…

The day progressed well despite the hair raising encounters with traffic. There was variety in paths and towns. We saw 4 other pilgrims, a Norwegian and a family group of 3 who were quite affected by walking injuries… blisters and muscle aches.

At S. Caetano where there was supposed to be no refreshments, the albergue owner opened her door, welcomed us in, gave us coffee and filled our water bottles. The respite gave us renewed energy for the next 5kms.

Our cynical side thought she may have rigged the bench in front of her place with a buzzer… either way we were thankful for the attention and the welcome. We made a donation before we left.

The day once again was hot and it will be the same tomorrow. We have a contingency plan and we plan to walk most of our way before the real heat of the day.

T

he other highlight today was lunch in a traditional restaurant, huge plates of grilled meat and sides to share, wine, beer, bread, olives, sweets and coffee included. Needless to say, way too much and no need for dinner… just a drink and a stroll before an early night for an early start in the morning !

embrace the heat…

The locals, the albergue hosts, the restaurant hosts, the TV and fb Camino Portuguese have all been telling us that it is a heatwave, the entire week…So, time for a plan… early rises, as early as we can manage, in order to walk the major part of the day’s stage in the cool, then a break and a slower finishing off the last part of the day’s stage. Make sure we take plenty of water and take as many shade breaks as possible.So far things have gone according to plan… whenever the host has offered a very early breakfast we have taken it and started the day between 6am and 7am, thus walking for 3 hrs in the cool getting a coffee if available or eating our dark chocolate, then continuing.When I say things have gone according to plan, it doesn’t mean smooth sailing by any stretch of the imagination…early starts are good, but I often feel jolted awake when I least expect it, and of course it doesn’t take into account the sleeplessness caused by either the bed or the inexplicable neverending partying/arguing in the street just below your window! Then there is the difference in energy levels, moods or motivation between Bill and I. One morning I’m just raring to go and Bill seems to be dragging his feet, the next day it’s the reverse…Today I thought to myself, it’s hot, it’s so darned hot (is that a song?) then I thought of the line from Starwars… feel the force and of course I came up with… embrace the heat, work with it, make it an advantage…(Walking for hours on end, one foot in front of the other, flies buzzing, the dusty heat palpable in your eyes and throat… the mind wanders… and comes up with all sorts of associations… I just go with them)The Portuguese have commented more than once on this similarity between our two countries “you should be used to the heat. Australia is a hot country !”So with blue gums and other eucalyptus trees around us and a determination not to let the heat get to me as in the previous two days, I stepped up the pace in the early hours, took plenty of sips of water, took regular breaks (they became more frequent as the temperature increased ) and made it to our destination relatively in a relatively good state.After 7 hours on the road, mostly through fields of corn, broccoli, lupin, melons etc, but also hair raising main road verges and quaint but short wooded paths, we were spent and struggling a little to find our accommodation (we walked right past it).Imagine my surprise when this old, vine covered quinta with stately rooms and a swimming pool turned out to be where we were staying! Talk about landing on our feet! And our hostess couldn’t do enough for us… drinks, take the weight off your feet, ..and tonight she is preparing dinner!Yep, embrace the moment…

another hot day

and it probably, neigh, it definitely won’t be the last… In fact when we arrived at our hostel before lunch, we thought that we would be turned away, as checking in usually occurs around 3.. He took one look at our beetroot red faces and said there was no problem. While we were registering he added that it would be an excellent idea to leave very early the next morning as temperatures are predicted to continue into the mid to high 30s. Breakfast would be laid out during the night thus allowing early rises a self service breakfast and an early start.

Bill calls it “money in the bank” and one hour’s walk in the morning is worth two in the afternoon. Evidence of that surfaced today as we walked along country roads reminiscent of country NSW, VIC, SA…

There was little shade, dusty tracks made worse by the little traffic there was and a sun that cracked the earth… Our backpacks seemed to become heavier and heavier, our pace slowed almost to a crawl after 16kms without anywhere to sit and we faced a steep climb into town! The only thing that got me up there was the promise of coffee and a sit down.

After a shower and rest we found the local eatery, took our time over lunch and went on a church crawl… managing to see all the highlights but only entering two as the others were closed…

Tomorrow will also be hot and the distance will be longer. We plan to start walking at daybreak and hope to reach our destination by lunchtime. There is some elevation ahead. We hope for a good pace and shade as we walk.

Blessings, allsorts…

What a way to start the day! It could not have been better! Even being diddled out of breakfast could not don’t the elation provided by the two photos!Thankyou fellow pilgrims (we are after all, everyone of us, pilgrim people) of St Ambrose’s Parish for your embodied presence (however ephemeral via messenger)!Allow me to backtrack just a little… the day’s 34 degree forecast saw us rise at 5:30 for a promised early breakfast at 6. The alarm jolts us out of a fitful sleep, backpacks repacked, we kind of stumble downstairs to the cafe next door, only to find it in darkness and security grill down! This is after the Residenza owner assured us of an early breakfast and charging us an extra 10€! Ordinarily we would be quite angry, but we almost expected this to happen! A quick scan of the street revealed an open caffè where we grabbed a coffee and all was well…yes just as we are about to head off, our breakfast place is open!!! we grab two pastries and this time we really do leave, follow the blue & yellow arrows out of town, up and over the railway where we are stopped in our tracks by the sunrisethe 10 euro charge still stung a little, but our friends were thinking of us and God was splendid in the morning glory! The air was crisp, there was birdsong and a cool breeze. Hopefully no accomodation hassles and an early lunchtime finish!The way was flat, not spectacular but pretty and interesting… quintas (largish farm holdings, sometimes with farmhouse ), derelict farmhouses, fields, levy banks and quaint townships.At the first town, after 11 kms, we stopped for a coffee and met a fellow pilgrim, Italian, unimpressed by the heat and the experience so far when compared to the Frances Camino. We kind of agreed. Food for thought though, for myself really..Why am I doing the Camino? The spectacular vistas, the lightening bolt moments of revelation, … not sure… but I do know that the Camino provides, it will yield surprises both welcome and unwelcomed ones and it will be what it will be.In the next town we passed by a church, and being opened we went in for a look, a bit of cool and a prayer or two. There seemed to be great excitement for some reason, we got bohm dia and bohm Camino from quite a few people. On the way out a youngish man (everyone is looking young these days) approaches us, asks what language we speak and would we mind being part of a tourism promotion that they were shooting? Well… why not! Basically we had a chat with their actress, Catherine, and we were on our way… and not so far from our destination !We made it by 11!!! 5 hours walking 17 kms! Bill had outdone himself by booking us into an equestrian school hotel complete with pool… the setting beautiful, the accommodation near palatial, cool interiors, large dining hall and the coolest of billiards room and a chapel… now for tomorrow !

Vila Franca to Azambuja

Today start off like a combination of Sad Sack and Eyore. Even our gracious breakfast host couldn’t help that low feeling, the one that expects the worst…

It was going to be hot, it was going to be the longest stretch so far and the muscles were complaining on day 5…As I walked, I thought about friends and family. How much I missed them and how a number of them are going through rough times. Some are battling health issues, from cancers to aging, to anxieties, to depression. This led me to the question everyone asks…why I am doing the Camino?

One of the reasons is so that I can think and pray for each of those people. So when you are going to sleep for the night, know that with each step, each bit of sky I glimpse, each flower that catches my eye, someone on the other side of the world is thinking of you. what you notice as you walk, the God of small things

Alverca do Ribatejo to Vila Franca de Xira

After a very short while from the beginning of today’s section, maybe 90 mins, and I felt in dire straits… fellow pilgrims would know the feeling, miles from nowhere and needing a rest room…

Just as we round a bend in the road and traverse the roundabout we see a shopping centre… there must be coffee and a bathroom, surely!

And there was. So a comfort stop, coffee and pastel de nata and we were ready to go, expecting to be hours away from our destination and forever on the highway…

Reality turned out to be quite different, we had walked extra on the previous section and it turned out we were finished by 11 AM. after a pleasant stroll on the “newly” constructed path.

As a reward we stopped for a drink and a leisurely lunch and then headed off to our accommodation…

Lucky we were early, as we found out that our booking had been canceled….

Yep, as a consequence of credit card fraud, and the reissueing of a new one… the system had not caught up and thus the cancellation…

“No problem” says our host, “I have a room, but the bathroom is shared…”

Well, as they say… the best plans of mice and men…

Needless to say, we were glad of a room, so registered, left our bags, went for a wander around town and came back at 3.

We are now showered and ensconced in our room, resting up for a longish day tomorrow.

We plan to start early and finish before it gets really hot. The max is forecast to be 32…

Goodbye Lisboa …

Well, here we are, unexpectedly enjoying an early coffee, at Vila Franca de Xira on the Targus River. It so reminds me of my home town river, the Tweed River, except it is about three times wider! We did an extra five kilometers the other day, so this has come as a sort of reward. Today, we have travelled with full packs carrying everything we will need for the next week on our backs. We have been the object of much interest in the two towns/suburbs we have travelled through with many stares and a few greetings.

The road was a challenge early on as trucks and cars sped past on narrowish roads. But the last five kilometers were easy as we walked briskly along a newly completed track along the river. What we expected to take two hours or more only took one. It is amazing what a good straight flat road will do to your speed with a pack. Let’s hope it continues. This is one of the few times we have finished our day’s walking in the morning! It feels unreal and I even feel a little guilty as we rarely finished on the French camino before four PM. No mountains and hills is such a different experience.  Some would like to skip the industrial walk out of Lisbon, but we have found it a little more mixed than that. Some parts dusty and industrial and others beautifully quiet and reflective (all within a few hundred meters of each other). Scariest moment so far, (apart from an encounter with a pickpocket at Rossio Metro exit) was a car heading fast straight towards me walking on the side of the narrow road. It stopping only a few meters in front of me as a huge truck came from behind us. It waited, and then moved on. I had survived another seemingly close meeting with a car.

The weather is predicted to heat up over the next few days. Hopefully, we continue to have cool river breezes and straight flat roads! As they say: Tell him, “You’ve got to be joking.”

Bill.

Angels and demons

Today was an early start since we needed to travel to yesterday’s end point and continue the Camino from there. The Metro doesn’t open till 6:30 and we got there as the gates were being opened. We acquired the necessary tickets for our journey, made all the connections and started walking at approximately 7:15. As we alighted the train we noticed that we had narrowly missed a ticket inspector. An inconvenience that would have wasted precious walking time!Out of the station, quick snap of the street art and we hear excited voices behind us! Italian, it seems to me. Bill tells me they are fellow pilgrims and we greet each other with Bohm Camino. A brief exchange reveals an amazing coincidence; they were Italian and from the same region we had just visited. In fact, the same small town!As always has been happening to us, they powered ahead and we later met them at the Cafe and chatted some more. Most probably never to see them again, as we have built in a number of rest days.The road was not without its beauty; wildflowers springing up in unusual places, wetlands, birds and the occasional ruin breaking up the old and new industrial zones… a little like walking around the Thomastown and Cambellfield grasslands and Creek walking paths. There was very little shade, dusty paths, sections of having to walk very close to traffic. We were thankful for the directions from locals and their encouragement for a Bohm Camino. A lady gently nodded her head and patted my arm in sympathy for the journey ahead. We were also grateful that we were stopping before it got too hot and that the train would take us to our accommodation and a nice meal quite quickly…This is where another angel stepped in to help… a ticket inspector advised us that we had bought the wrong tickets… a surprise to us as we had enlisted the help of a transport employee… he then told us that we should seek the assistance of the available personnel and to simply put more money on the card and it would allow us to travel on all modes of public transport. He added that we must buy the correct ticket as instant fines were given for violations. He did not issue us with a fine!Duly admonished, as soon as we could we attempted to follow this gentleman’s advise. The metro client assistance employee told us he could not or maybe would not help us…We thought we would try again with someone else and when we weren’t feeling so tired and frustrated !The story though continues… as we struggle up the metro stairs into a popular square, telling each other how sore our muscles are and how our knees are objecting to the motion, I feel Bill swing quickly round and while hanging onto and twisting someone’s hand, shout “what do you think you’re doing with your hand in my pocket? Trying to steal my money?” The guy was shaken. He pulled away from Bill clearly not expecting Bill’s reaction. He retreated saying “you’re crazy man, trying to take my jumper!”Bill was surprised himself, shaken but aware of the situation and on top of it.It all happened so quickly. In fact Bill thought it was me!!!I suppose we could not escape the pickpocket incident… warnings are posted every where and all friendly Portuguese give you advice about how to hold your bag and carry your wallet.

Surprises

One of the most important challenges facing a pilgrim is collecting stamps on their pasport/credential as proof of their journey. Our first one was proving to be elusive as the Cathedral was closed both in the evening prior to our start and in the morning… no big problem as in an effort to break up the initial long stretch out of Lisbon we would be spending a few nights and we would try for the stamp on our return.

We were very eager to start and a relatively early start brought our first surprise, a fellow pilgrim having his photo taken in front of the Cathedral. Fergus, an Irishman from San Francisco lead the way. No surprise that we soon lost sight of him only to meet up with him hours later…

There were only two others we encountered that were obviously pilgrims, everyone else was going about their daily business; streetsweepers, office workers, students, people setting up streamers for the next feast day, people setting up market stalls and us walking, talking taking snaps…

The street scapes kept stopping us in our tracks, each bend in the road revealing new vistas, more street art and the enormous expanse of the river. Overhead gondolas kept reminding us that there were easier ways to travel.

First 15kms done by lunchtime and we headed back to Lisbon with only the train system and ticketing to negotiate, that done there was the matter of the stamp and the promised visit to the church of Saint Anthony…

all told we ended up walking another 6 kms! and enjoyed a wonderful late lunch

onto tomorrow.

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