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.