Camino Day 15 - São João da Madeira to Porto

Our original itinerary for today (Saturday, September 10th) was to walk from São João da Madeira to Grijό, a distance of @ 12 miles and then to walk the remaining 10 miles from Grijό to Porto the following day. Due to lack of accommodations in Grijό, our route was extended all the way to Porto, making for a very long, grueling day. When adding in the extra mileage from our origination and destination hotels, total mileage for the day was @ 24 miles with 5500+ in elevation gain.

As we set out in the pre-dawn hours, Rich wasn't sure he was going to walk the entire route but wanted to try. We're close enough to Porto now that getting a taxi relatively easily shouldn't be a problem.

We had an initial climb out of São João da Madeira (I don't understand how we climb to our destination town, thinking we're at the top of that particular hill, and then when leaving the town, we climb again) and then another long climb to the town of Malaposta. The terrain today was mostly asphalt with a few woodland tracks and ancient Roman roads. 

        Leaving São João with streetlamps and a full moon

                                 lighting our way

Well past our halfway point, we now have only

160 miles to go!

Our shadow picture for the day              

      Visiting with Mario and Freya (dog) on our way to Porto

Our first view of Porto and the Atlantic

       

We reached Grijό around lunchtime and I could tell Rich was pretty spent, what with the heat and all the hill climbing. Stopped for lunch and I was able to order an Uber (isn't modern technology grand?) to take us to our hotel in Porto. Everyone else continued on after lunch and didn't reach our hotel until early evening. From all accounts, the last major hill was via a steep, Roman road making it difficult to maneuver.

          Becky and Theresa climbing the Roman road

 

View of Porto