Vila Praia de Ancora to A Guarda – 16kms

Ok, I did write up yesterday’s epic 28km walk and published it but apparently no one can view it and I’m not re-doing it! Word Press is causing me much grievance when I’m exhausted and tired at the end of a long day. Every morning I’m so tired and my body aches. My legs and feet particularly. Had a good sleep and woke before the alarm clock but was so slow and held Mr D and Karen up. No breakfast in this place. Mr D had two cups of the worst coffee he has ever had. It wasn’t too cold, mostly humid, overcast sort of day but much more pleasant for walking. I forgot to put on my compression socks overnight and the vasculitis was angry red on both legs so added on cream, antihistamines and wet buffs to both legs that allows my socks and inside of shoes to become wet, creating more problems!

So we set off and should really of had breakfast in the town on the way out. Very nice walk skirting the coastline and looking ahead to the mountain and coastline across the river. That is Spain & where we were heading. The set up is really lovely with lots of seats facing the ocean with beautiful paintings on the backs of them. Cute sculpture bin holders. Very lovely town that we never had time to explore. Lots of pilgrims had the same thought leaving early. There is the remnants of Hurricane Gabrielle heading towards the coast of Portugal near Lisbon causing strong winds and rain starting today but luckily where we are, we avoid the worst of it. So Mr D was eager to get over to Spain before the weather came in.

Karen and I stopped at a long queue to get this made stamp in our pilgrim passports. Well worth the wait. And watching this man making the stamp over and over for pilgrims. Mr D doesn’t do queues so walked on to find a cafe. The cafe in Moledo was super lovely however the service very slow. The lady had forgot about our order. Anyway, I received cups of tea with the black tea in the small teapot and the cup filled to the top with hot milk. Hmmmmm, they obviously don’t know how to do cup of tea. So I managed and had crepe with sugar and cinnamon and one more Portuguese egg tart as we were almost out of Portugal.

Time to hurry along as we were taking too long according to Mr D. This Portuguese local decided to join us for a short part and tell us about some history to the area. Karen remarked that he was drunk and she could smell alcohol on his breath as he was walking and talking next to her. Then we made our way through beautiful woodlands and back to the river to follow the boardwalk into Caminha. Pedro from our accommodation in Ancora told us to go to the second boat. So we got to the first boat and they were trying to get us to use them to go across. Karen was thinking yeah but I was like no we go into Caminha to the second boat! Onwards we walked and found the boat – Popeye boat taxi that gives a discount when we mention Pedro and Trajadinha. Mr Safety, Mr D was like well, how many people can they safely carry across? When are we going? He did have a bee in his bonnet to hurry to our destination. The weather was holding just fine with the smallest amount of drizzle as we squeezed onto the boat.

Hola! We were in Spain just like that! We had decided on the shortcut today to the town, after our big days we didn’t want the extra long walk around the headland. Straight up cute cobblestone laneways and into more gorgeous woodlands. Karen was so worried we were going up the mountain and over but no, we skirted around it. Heading into town it started raining again so my umbrella got its first use. It sure feels good to be in Spain, though I did like Portugal.

As it was around 2.30pm and we couldn’t get into our accommodation until 4pm, we stopped at a lovely restaurant with a funny and friendly older waitress. Mr D wanted the most expensive dish on the menu – 130 euro Lobster. He enjoyed it. And as we had finished walking he decided to have a grand long lunch with alcohol! So we piled ourselves all with beer and vino. The lady must have been thinking what a bunch of piss pot Australians. 😆 150 metres down some tricky wet cobblestone steps and to our appartment all to ourselves with two bedrooms, kitchen and bathroom and lovely living room looking out to the grey and wet day outside. Even the clouds were lowering on the mountain. Karen went out exploring and said it was so cold and no one around. We decided a chill session in the apartment would be better! I do appreciate the change of weather. My feet are pretty sore, my rash on legs has reduced and not as red. Mr D complaining of a sore knee – what? Mr Perfect has a sore knee! Never 😆