Camino Day 21 - A Guarda to Baiona

Our 21st day of walking the Camino (Saturday, September 17th) was one of the harder and longer (22.5 miles) walks we’ve had. As usual for a day of this length, we left our hotel in the pre-dawn hours (5:45) and started our first full day of walking in Spain. With the time change (Spain is an hour ahead of Portugal), sunrise wasn’t until @ 8:15, which we hadn’t taken into consideration.  Some of the first few miles were over very rough and uneven pathways, so our progress was slow as we used the light from our headlamps to pick our way over the rocks. By the time the sun came up, the terrain had changed to quiet country roads, asphalt highways and some lovely woodland paths. Most of our route today paralleled the coast, making for some beautiful scenery.

            Our view of A Guarda as we left this morning

Ocean view at first light

Beautiful view of the Spanish coastline                

About 3 miles from Baiona we left the highway and proceeded up a woodland path, at times trudging along remnants of an old Roman road. Some of the boulders had deep grooves in them, perhaps erosion from water runoff or, as I like to imagine, from the wheels of Roman carts as they carted goods up this hill. By the time we wound our way down to the center of Baiona’s old town, we were all ready for something cool and refreshing. Stopped for a gelato before heading up the last .5 mile to our hotel.

      One of our beautiful forest paths

In contrast, our pathway along the busy highway

Initial view of the lighthouse. We would eventually      

climb much higher before heading down into Baiona.   

Although in a beautiful setting, this was a difficult path to traverse

Theresa gingerly picking her way downhill

Our hotel this evening is part of the Parador chain, whose facilities are typically located in refurbished historical sites. This particular hotel was once the Castle of Monterreal originally built in the 12th century. It’s located within the walls of a medieval fortress that was once used to guard this seaport town from its enemies. The rooms are large and spacious, a welcome luxury at this stage of our journey, although not in keeping with one’s view of pilgrim accommodations. 

                       View of the fortress walls

Our abode for the night

Enjoying the sunset while dining on the terrace        

Camino Day 20 - Vila Praia do Āncora to A Guarda

Day 20 of our Camino walk (Friday, September 16) was another beautiful day of walking along the beach and through a cool shady forest to the town of Caminha and then a water taxi ride across the estuary to A Guarda, Spain. Because this was a short day of walking (less than 10 miles), we slept in a little and didn’t leave our hotel until after 9:00. 

                       Leaving Vila Praia do Āncora

Getting a stamp in our passport at a small chapel along the way

View of Monte de Santa Tecla. A Guarda is on the other  

side of the mountain.                            

Both the beach and forest walking were quiet and peaceful, and the forest path deposited us at a waterfront boardwalk a short way from Caminha’s town center. We saw a number of small boats operating as water taxis there, but our information said there was a ferry terminal in Caminha where we could catch a ferry to A Guarda. As we walked along the boardwalk we looked for ferries crossing the estuary and became a little concerned when we couldn’t see anything resembling a ferry on the water. Once we arrived at the ferry terminal, we were told the ferry wasn’t running any more (we assumed because it was now off season). Luckily, there was a water taxi that had just arrived, and he ferried us across.

Climbing into our water taxi

Once we reached the ferry terminal on the other side, we still had @ a 4 mile walk via the Senda Litoral to the town of A Guarda itself. By the time we got to our hotel it was almost 5:00 and there was some must-see sightseeing near A Guarda we wanted to do. We quickly showered and changed and got a taxi to take us to Monte de Santa Tecla where there are ruins of a Celtic settlement from the 1st century BC. Didn’t get to dinner until 8:00, which meant we didn’t get back to our hotel until 10:00. For what we thought was going to be a relatively short day, it turned out to be a very long day indeed.

                           Along the path to A Guarda

Entering the waterfront town of A Guarda

Monte de Santa Tecla Celtic settlement            

Camino Day 19 - Viana do Costelo to Vila Praia do Āncora

What an absolutely joyful day of walking (Thursday, September 15th)! We followed the Sendra Litoral along the coast all the way into Vila Praia do Āncora. The Sendra Litoral is one of two major Portuguese coastal routes: the "official" coastal route and the Sendra, which tends to follow the coastline more closely, but is less well marked and can be prone to washouts and some dune walking.

A good portion of the Portuguese coast is fairly rugged with lots of rocks and crashing waves. We walked @ 13 miles primarily on boardwalks and paved paths with stunning views of the ocean the entire way. It was so peaceful and soothing to the soul and quite easy on the body as well. I could have sat for hours watching the waves and thinking how lucky we were to be here in Portugal and thanking God for the health and stamina to be able to complete this challenging Camino.

                           Leaving Viana do Costelo

The first of many forts along the Portuguese coast.

These were built in the 1700's to ward off pirates.

Consulting our maps                          

                     Waves crashing on the rocks

Visiting with other pilgrims during a rest stop

Enjoying our walk along the beach                 

Camino Day 18 - Esposende to Viana do Castelo

Today (Wednesday, September 14th) is Rich’s 78th birthday and he spent the day walking 20 miles! According to our itinerary, our walk today was supposed to be @ 16 miles. When we took a closer look at the map however, we soon realized our hotel wasn’t in Esposende as our itinerary indicated, but in the town of Fão. Esposende was 2.5 miles further down the road!

The sky was overcast when we set out but didn’t look threatening, and the weather forecast indicated a 20 - 30 percent chance of rain. It looked like the tropical rainstorm had pretty much run its course. Our route today took us inland, although we paralleled the coast most of the way. We walked quiet country lanes, woodland paths, and even crossed the Rio Nieve via a unique pedestrian bridge. We also had our share of hills today, climbing @ 1,000 feet.

All in all, a very pleasant day (for the most part) albeit long. We didn’t stop for “lunch” until @ 4:00 and by the time we finished, a light rain had started falling. We still had @ 5 miles yet to our hotel and it was well after 5:00 when we left the cafe. We hot footed it as quickly as our tired legs could carry us, hoping to arrive at our hotel before dark. The route into Viana do Castelo was via a VERY long bridge over the Rio Lima, with heavy car traffic. By this time, the rain was quite heavy and negotiating the bridge in the driving rain was not our idea of fun. All of us breathed a heavy sigh of relief when we finally reached the other end. Arrived at our hotel @ 7:00, tired but happy to have reached our destination.

      Bom Caminho in many languages

One of many churches on our route today

Becky and Jerry are happy we only have 208 kms to Santiago! 

                     Peaceful walk in the woods

Stone bridge over the Rio Nieve

The Nieve is a spate river, meaning it's prone

to flooding. With all the recent rain, we were

worried we wouldn't be able to cross it      

Camino Day 17 - Povoa de Varzim to Esposende

Woke up this morning (Tuesday, September 13th) to torrential rain and 30+ mile per hour winds. After looking at the weather forecast, discovered the Portuguese Coast was getting hammered with tropical rainstorm Danielle! Decided to forego walking today and instead ate a leisurely breakfast and read or watched a little TV this morning. At one point, the rain seemed to diminish somewhat and Becky, Theresa and I decided to walk across the plaza to the tourist information (TI) office. As soon as we were a few feet out the door, the rain and wind picked up with a vengeance as we ran for the safety of the TI. When we left the TI, the sun was starting to peek its head out from the clouds and Becky and Theresa decided to walk across the street and view a tile wall on display there. Less than a few minutes later (after I had safely gotten back to our hotel), the skies opened up and they came back looking like drowned rats. That was our only foray outside until we got in our taxis to take us to Esposende.

Not the best picture, but a representation of the weather today

When we reached Esposende, the rain and wind had calmed down and we were able to find a laundromat and get our laundry done and then have a quick lunch of chicken soup and salad in the town of Fão. Made it back to our hotel without any further incident.

Camino Day 16 - Porto to Povoa de Varzim

Today (Monday, September 12th) was one for the books! We were planning for a long walk (@ 21 miles) so left the hotel @ 5:45 with a relatively light rain falling. Donned our rain jackets and put our rain covers on our backpacks and headed off. Made our way down to the Rio Douro and followed it west to the Atlantic Ocean. Rain kept falling intermittently and a couple of times during the morning it looked like it might clear up.

Leaving Porto in the pre-dawn hours

Our route followed the Atlantic shoreline and a good percentage of the time we were walking on well-maintained boardwalks. It was absolutely lovely! After @ 12 miles, we stopped at a small cafe for lunch, intending to sit outside under the umbrellas. The wind was starting to really pick up, however, and a huge gust of wind suddenly came up and blew over one of the large umbrellas next to where we were sitting. We quickly opted instead to eat inside.

      Along the way with a view of Portugal's rocky coast 

                             in the background

One of the many lighthouses we saw along the way

View of the boardwalk and coastline              

Continued our walk along the boardwalks and planned to stop in the town of Vila Cha for an afternoon break before finishing our journey to Povoa de Varzim. By this time, it was clear our journey today was going to be closer to 24 miles as we calculated the remaining distance to our hotel. It was also about this time that the rain and winds started in earnest as we walked along the unprotected shoreline and up the hillside to Vila Cha. The boardwalks became not only slippery, but rotted and dangerous in many places as we wound our way upward. Rich and I were walking quite a way ahead of everyone else and arrived in Vila Cha in a torrential downpour. The small cafe was filled with pilgrims trying to escape the rain and dry out a little before continuing their journey, so we ended up huddling under a tree outside trying to stay a little dry while we waited for the others. Becky and Jerry arrived first and said Theresa had hurt herself while walking on the rotted boardwalk and they weren’t sure if she could make it to the town. (She had hurt her foot but was a trooper and made it to Vila Cha.)

View of the rickety boardwalk up to

Vila Cha, although this picture doesn't 

do it justice

By this time, we were all soaking wet, had already walked 18.5 miles with another 6 miles (@ 2.5 hours) to go, and decided we would get a taxi for all of us, not just Theresa. The cafe owner was kind enough to call a taxi for us and we were soon on our way, quite relieved we were done with our journey for the day.

Porto Rest Day

Today is Sunday (September 11th) AND a rest day AND we’re in Porto, so we were able to attend the 11:00 Mass at the Porto Cathedral, which is where we’ll start the next stage of our journey to Santiago. The majority of pilgrims traveling the Portuguese Camino start in Porto rather than Lisbon. Already, we can tell this is a pilgrim town. We met a few pilgrims from South Africa at Mass and saw quite a few others, have seen a number of pilgrims in and around the cathedral area, and Dave and Theresa were finally able to purchase their pilgrim shell. The Camino tradition is for pilgrims to wear a shell on their backpack identifying them as a pilgrim (the shell is a symbol of the Camino and used on all official way marks we pass).

Porto sits on the north bank of the Douro River, near where the river meets the Atlantic Ocean. Tomorrow we’ll begin our walk at the cathedral and then head down to the river, following it until we reach the Atlantic. But for today, we spent our time in the city center, primarily in and around Praça da Liberdade (Liberty Square). As is typical for a rest day, we also spent time at the laundromat and grocery store.

           Ciérigos Church and Tower

Porto City Hall

Porto Cathedral                            

                 Visiting with fellow pilgrims after Mass

View of the Cathedral's gilded altar

Posing for a picture outside the cathedral