Day Two; Mindelo to Apulia – 26kms

Today was harder than yesterday. Not so much from the soreness of yesterday as that wasn’t so bad after a restful sleep besides when Mr D was having coughing fits at midnight. But today was much hotter, minus the blowing cool breeze we had yesterday. I believe it went up to 28. So too much. But we started early at 7.30am and it was most pleasant then, few pilgrims on the boardwalk, mostly locals going for a morning stroll.

Ambles pulled ahead of us and was meant to find a cafe for breakfast. It looked like nothing would be open until 10am. We followed behind Karen & I, into Vila De Conde as things went pear shaped. I didn’t realise I had Camino Ninja on the Portuguese Senda Litoral route and Ambles had it on the official Coastal route. So we bewildered followed markers into the town not seeing where Ambles had gone. But we were in need of a toilet and coffee. Found the first open cafe that actually was a secret! One board out on the street, walk into a hallway full of artwork and follow your nose down the hallway, down some stairs and emerge into a cute little hidden cafe with a lovely garden out the back. Best thing was not many pilgrims had discovered it. So we enjoyed pistachio croissants with chai latte. Wonderful! Ambles missed out.

We lost the Camino markers after coming back out. Had I the coastal app open would have been fine. We made our way to the coastal path again and close to midday we finally caught up with Ambles on the town outskirts at a cafe so had a refreshing juice drink and small bite to eat. After this it got hot, no cover at all, trudging along covering distance before lunch. Karen remarked to one lady walking the other way she was going the wrong way. Turns out there is an another route following the blue arrows from Santiago to Fatima. There you go!

At 2pm there about, after passing the first OPEN public toilets, we arrived in the town before Apulia and Mr D found an authentic Portuguese restaurant where the locals were dining. I must admit I was affected by the heat, my feet boiling in the shoes. Had some grilled sea bass while Mr D and Karen had Sardines. After it seemed all the locals had gone, the owners locked the front door and were enjoying their late lunch out the back. We hobbled out the back door with another 7.2kms to go. It was torture!

This is where I realised I was following a different map to Mr D. Unfortunately we ended up on his map and took the long way around to our accommodation. An extra 2km and we had to walk on cobblestone streets where the locals sped by us. My feet were killing me. We found the area but took another 20 minutes to find this apartment we had booked. This one we had to ourselves as long as we made it up the 3 flights of stairs! Indeed we could stay here for a few days recovering!

It was already 6pm, but we dragged our limbs out to the local bar for drinks and tapas food. Tomorrow is hot again and another long walk. See how we go. Lessons learned; there’s two routes I can follow when Mr D says I’m following the red line! And I am following a different red line, it all makes sense! Karen’s balls weren’t hurting so much today….. until the last cobblestone part 😂 Today didn’t have water fountains like yesterday. But still lots of boardwalks and flat sections. Full of Vino, cocktails and Baileys. Time for shuteye 😴