Date: 9 April 2018

Walked from: Alvaiázere

Walked to: Rabaçal

Distance: 31.6 km

When I was walking the French Way to Santiago in October, much of the talk on the trail was of the forest fires in Portugal and northern Spain. I am pleased to say that there will be no such worries on this trip: the countryside is sodden with water, and more of it continued to fall from the skies today, although not in the monsoon like quantities that are predicted for tomorrow. I edged my way around one flooded footpath today, but another defeated me, and faced with the option of an unplanned swim or a shorter route to the next village via the road, the lure of the tarmac won.

It was another lovely day of walking, despite the weather. The route undulated its way through cork forests, small vineyards, olive groves and other farming land, often taking me along narrow footpaths bordered by the type of lichen-covered stone walls I’m more accustomed to seeing in Yorkshire than the Iberian peninsula.

I stopped for 20 minutes in the town of Ansião to fill up on a mixture of fat and sugar based nutritional goodness that I’m sure most athletes will have in their dietary regimes (I think I may be developing an addiction to pastel de natas – delicious custard tarts) but the rain made me disinclined to stop, which meant I arrived in tonight’s hostel for the wonderfully early time of 1.30pm – plenty of time to relax and enjoy the sensation of not walking before carrying on tomorrow 😀