This was a challenging day. According to my iWatch, I logged 9.44 miles with an elevation gain of 1,541 feet. The duration of the walk was 6 hours, 16 minutes. That may not sound too impressive, but the terrain for a lot of that elevation gain was extremely rugged. Mostly through dried stream beds, through which one had to negotiate a path through a field of bowling ball sized rocks. The worse was the eighth mile which took over 45 minutes to travel. Even the "flat" parts of the walk were across very uneven cobble stone paths. Toward the end of the day, I felt the edge of each cobble stone. I have several issues with my feet to attend to tonight. Overall, it was a good day. Laura opted not to walk the final 4 km, as did many others.
We started the day with a good breakfast at the hotel and then shuttled to where we left off the previous day in Ponte de Lima, crossing the Roman era bridge and walking through several small villages. Vineyards everywhere!
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| Laura and Chris, one of the tour guides |
After a couple of miles, we left the Camino and headed for lunch with Conde de Calheiros, a knight of the Orden de Malta. We had horderves on the patio and he gave us a tour of his home before treating us to lunch. At the end of the lunch, the Count presented each of us a sea shell to commemorate our travel on the Camino de Santiago. The Count's family has been in the area since the 12th century. The manor house he lives in was built in the 18th century. Currently, the family grows their own grapes and makes their own wine, mostly for their own consumption.
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| Count de Calheiros |
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| View from the manor patio |
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| Count's Coat of Arms |
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| Dinning Room |
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| Original kitchen |
After lunch, we drove off back to rejoin the Camino. While the first part of the day was tiring, this next leg was exhausting covering three miles with a 1000 foot elevation change over extremely rugged terrain. The only nice thing about it was that we soon got into the forest which provided some relief from the withering sun. Lots of quartz is "harvested" in the surrounding hills. They even use it for their fence posts.
We were able to keep on the Camino by watching for frequent yellow paint arrows and an occasional Camino sign.
By the time we reached the summit of the "hill", we had a nice overview of the valley we just walked out of. It was at this point that Laura, and most of the others in the group, decided they had had enough of a good thing for the day and took the shuttle back to the hotel. About five of us decided to go the last 4 km (2.5 miles) down the other side of the hill. I was about 15 minutes behind the others and it was a very nice quiet walk.
Tonight, we will dine at the hotel. Maxine has invited Laura and I for Champagne prior to dinner. Tomorrow, we leave the hotel and shuttle to Miño, Estuary, Spain.
