Camino Santiago Day 2 16 September 2025

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Day  Two 16 September 2025

I started out pretty well. Got up at about 5am. I had a good night's sleep or pretty good anyway. I got changed, had breakfast, started off at about 6:30 a.m. with two other pilgrims, a Frenchman and a Japanese man. And basically stayed with him for only about a kilometer. The Frenchman was a very good walker and lost sight of him after 30 minutes. Yesterday's drinks and food intake comprised two bread rolls with cheese. Aside from breakfast, a liter of Coke, 2 L of water, and 500 mls of orange juice. So, overall 3 and 1/2 L of fluids, the rolls, and I also had some toasted bread with balsamic oil and that was at lunchtime. But I couldn't eat much. For dinner, it was fish with potatoes and rice. Again, I ate as much as I could. Had some fruit and a vegetable soup for €10. And that was pretty much dinner. Breakfast again. I had toast, cheese, scrambled eggs, yogurt, and coffee.  On day two which was rather a tough day I Started off at 6:30 am from Franca Xira and the  Plan was to walk about 35 kilometers. I ended up doing about 35 but got to Valada totally suffering from heat exhaustion. The stomach was basically not taking in any fluids or food.  I was struggling. The walk started off pretty well. Did pretty good time.  I was doing just over 4ks to 5ks an hour. But as it got warmer, there was a section of 10 kilometers without any shade from about 12km into the walk . And that basically caused the stomach to shut down. I managed to get to a bar to have a drink. I accidentally ordered an ice tea which didn't go down well. I also had a seven up that did help a bit.  I did have diarrhea which was not  good. The minute I left to walk the final 2.5 kms to the accommodation I started throwing up  but managed to get to the abergue .It was obviously a basic accommodation with bunk beds but at least I got there. I decided not to take the further 3ks to the next  accommodation and the stomach was basically pretty much closed down. Went to the toilet a couple of times. Couldn't eat much. Just had a bowl of rice with a hot tea and went to bed. Slept for a few hours. That was good. There was a father and daughter pair in the next room  and they got up pretty early at about 4:00. They were planning to walk to Santarem the  same place I was heading. So I got up at about 5. I've got ready and left. Today's a much shorter walk. It's only 20ks and I'm hoping to at least beat most of the heat and have a short walk so that I can recover properly, as the following day it's 31 ks to go. Generally, I think I'm doing quite well. I have no expectations about finishing, but  hoping that if I just take each day at a time, I'll be able to work through any difficulties. It will be good to figure out how to avoid the heat exhaustion and try to keep fluids up when the stomach's shutting down. That would be an interesting  issue if I can work that out, I suspect that's the main reason Even when it's not terribly hot, the stomach basically with the exertion over a couple of days begins to shut down or can't take as much food in. Everything becomes unpalatable and that obviously perpetuates the difficulty with moving forward. But having said that, I met some very interesting people. The father and daughter combination uh from Germany just outside Dortund and they're taking a slow walk. The daughter will go as far as Porto. The father will keep continuing possibly or going back. Then there was another German who is doing his third Camino. Chose Portuguese because he didn't have enough time and he's hoping to try and get to Porto at least in the next two weeks. He thinks 25 days is enough time to uh finish the Camino Portuguese. That means I really would basically just get to Santiago and then fly back to Lisbon to catch my flight back. But that makes it hopeful. Today hopefully will go well. I'll be able to rest, have some more food, and get ready for the next day. 

 

Camino Portuguese ...Lisbon to Santiago De Compostela

 

My journey on the Camino starting from Lisbon . I am now at the lounge waiting for the flight. Full of trepidation, excitement, but taking it one day at a time. Looking at it as a journey of meditation, self reflection. I have a slight cold and flu, but hopefully I'll be better by Monday , 15 September  and be able to keep up the pace of doing at least 30 to 40 kilometers a day. 

 

 

14 September 2025

Today is the 14th of September, my mom's birthday, and it's a very nice day in Lisbon. I arrived last night. It's a good flight, but still suffering from the effects of the flu that I picked up in Singapore, but I managed to get some sleep on the flight and got in at about 10:30pm to the hotel. It was a fairly quick  exit from Lisbon airport, although very long wait to clear immigration and it was very quick to get my baggage and walk out.  I had to wait about 25 to 30 minutes for the driver that I booked, but got into the hotel in about 20 minutes with no difficulties. Today I managed to get a pretty good night's sleep. Got up a little early because of the time difference and then went for a walk after breakfast at 10:00 am down to the tourist office at the center of the city where the river Targus is located.Lots of tourists. It was quite warm. I passed the street where the tram crashed, killing 15 people a week ago. I then went to the Lisbon Cathedral and managed to get my credential Camino passport which is a great start so that I can start on my Camino walk early tomorrow after breakfast. The Camino has a fairly well documented history in  summary around 44 AD James was killed in Jerusalem and his remains were brought back by two of his disciples to Galatia where he apparently  converted and taught in the Iberian Peninsula between 20 AD and 44 AD. That's at least is the legend. They brought his remains back and buried them and they were lost in history at least the burial spot till about the 9th century when a hermit found the remains and a church was built at Santiago de Compostela and basically from the 12th to around the 15th century  it became a significant pilgrimage spot with many pilgrims coming from all over Europe. It basically that pilgrimage declined rapidly after the black Plague and various wars but was revived again at the end of the 19th century and has become extremely popular now with the Camino Frances and the Camino Portuguese , being the two most popular routes of the main five. I start the Camino Portuguese tomorrow, the 15th of September, with the plan to try and complete it before the 8th of October. It really will depend on whether I can walk 30 odd kilometers a day and get to various accommodation along the way. It will be a good  experience. I have no expectations. Today I went to get the  credentials/passport and had a good  moment to sit in the Lisbon Cathedral and do a short meditation,  a metta meditation which I think was a good start. I feel pretty relaxed despite the flu and it would be nice to just be out on the journey  walking in solitude and peace. Hopefully the weather will be good although it has been raining in northern Portugal.  I would expect that there will be cooler days but presently it is nice and warm. And I look forward to the journey. 

 

 First Day September 15  2025 . The first  day  of the walk on the Portuguese Camino. I started off from Lisbon from the hotel and I had to walk about 2 and a half kilometers to get to the Lisbon Cathedral and then from the cathedral I used a GPS navigation tool on my Garmin which had downloaded the route at least the first two sections which totaled about 35  kilometers. Unfortunately, walking from the hotel and with a number of deviations on the trail because of construction work and closures, I ended up doing 40 kilometers today and it was quite a hot day. I didn't check the temperature, but I'm sure it was between 28 and 30 odd degrees. It wasn't humid, but it was very hot because there was no shade for most of the walk as it was next to the river. It's interesting that the first five or so kilometers was through industrial estates and fairly poor suburbs. There were absolutely no Camino markings. I then got onto a walkway which was obviously a much modern part of Lisbon where the Oceanarium is and that was fairly well set out. I had a drink at a cafe there which was run by Sikhs interestingly enough. so I had a coke and a water and I then continued from there. Unfortunately there was no cafes for about 12 kms and finally found one at the end of the walkways and had a break with coke and bread.there had no cafe. Got my first stamp as well.

 

I then continued to villa Franca. I met a Hungarian girl walking .We walked together for about an hour till the next town and she was staying there for the night as I continued .I got to Villa franca de Xira about 5 pm and tried to find accommodation but eventually asked the locals and I was directed to a  private hostel and I got a bed  and they directed me to a restaurant for dinner.