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.
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