Day 3 of our trek to Santiago de Compestela has bee a pleasent change from the boardwalks. It rained heavily overnight after the thunderstorms. We awoke early to grey skies and light rain. It looked wet and miserable through the window of our lodgings and we knew we would have to rise from our nice warm bed to continue the Camino. It was only a comparably short walk today. 24 km to our next Staging post at Viana do Castelo. We climbed from our pit. Packed our matildas and set off into the rain. Today is the only "forecast" wet weather for our entire Camino so we were not to perturbed. In fact after the heat of yesterday we were quite looking forward to it. It was hard going yesterday. Not because of the trail or distance but because the heat was draining. Once outside the rain stopped. It was a pleasent 22 degrees and the Camino called us onwards. The paths are never busy with peregrinos as most are following the itinery set out by the differing companies or like us our own custom route. As such people set off at different times according to their destination and fitness level. As our Camino involves more stages and less daily distance we set off around 9 am. This facilitates a little hurkle durkling and ensures the supermarkets are open to purchase our supplies.
The route took us out of Esposende via the local Aldi. 4km and we left the main road en route along the Camino towards Vila Do Castelo and our next lodgings. The route today was all inland. Small roads and farm tracks but a little climbing over rolling hills. Along a river valley and past several small villages. We have found that we are meeting the same peregrinos by default. The meetings are casual and fleeting as people walk at different speeds and everybody takes a rest break as and when they need to. We have spent today, on and off, in the company of an American couple. It is their first Camino and like us they are doing it for their own reasons, which are never discussed They are taking a rest day tomorrow at Vila Do Castelo but as we are not afforded such a luxury our paths won't cross again. Which is a shame because we enjoyed their company and he promised to buy me a beer which will now never happen. Every peregrinos we have met has been friendly and the greeting of "Buen Camino" is a special thing. There is certainly a sense of belonging to a special club as we are all doing the same thing. We are both really enjoying the experience despite the aches and pains.
It has been a great day and we feel we are in the swing of it now. We have great lodgings in the historic centre of Vila Do Castelo and like the previous places we have stayed we wish we had longer here to explore each one. But that is not the way of the peregrinos as we must keep moving north to our Destination.
This evening we went to a typical Portuguese resteraunt. The Punjabi Indian. It was a treat and we thoroughly enjoyed it. It made a change from grilled meat or pasta. Early night as tomorrow we are once more on the Camino heading ever onwards.
Bare and Crispy signing off Vila Do Castelo.
Portugal. "Buen Camino"
😃😃
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