Day 17 & 18 Camino Portuguese 1 & 2 October 2025

 

Day 17 1 October 2025

 And today I walked from  V I A N A Do Castello to C A M I N H A which is on the border with Spain. separated by a river. Instead of crossing the river, I plan to walk on to Tui which is the first Spanish town that I will enter through on a bridge. This is the border between Portugal and Spain. So, I've booked my accommodation at Tui. It's about 30 km, but it's probably going to end up with being in excess of 30 kilometers. I plan to try and leave around 6.00 am or 6:30 a.m. and get an early start.  I'll be moving inland away from the coast and plan to get to Santiago by Sunday, the 5th of October. That gives me 4 days on the central route. Today Day 17  was  quite a nice day. Weather wasn't too bad. I met a lovely couple, Julie and David from Wollongong in Australia. Walked with them for an hour or so. Aside from that I thought it was a reasonable walk. There was a few hills and I did about 400 m of elevation. Took loads of pictures. There were lots of cats around, some beautiful spots and some beautiful churches along the way. Uh, just reminds you that the pilgrims obviously um were fervently spiritual in their journey. um and obviously the churches were there to support them. Aside from that, um no injuries and accommodation's been pretty good today. I got in at about 2, but they host didn't check us in until 3:00. It was private accommodation. I got my own room. I had a fish meal. for lunch, which helped at least try and supplement the um lack of food that I've been having. And tonight, I just had a banana vanilla ice cream, which was pretty good. Although, interestingly enough, the Portuguese ice cream tends to be a little bit more sourish. Not sure why, but managed to finish that comfortably. But I still can't eat a lot of food and I'll just try and keep up um as much carbs as I can. Although I don't feel a weakening or bonking when I walk. I am drinking and having Coke and coffee which has helped particularly with sugar. So I think that's helped a bit but I'm not obviously replenishing the carbs that I'm losing. But I don't think that's a problem given that I'm not running. Anyway, tomorrow hopefully once I cross into Spain, I'll have a much better idea as to finishing the the walk in Santiago and I'll probably book my accommodation in Santiago. Then other than that, it's been enjoyable, peaceful. quite a few hours where there's no one around and that's been good.

 

 

 

 Day 18 2 October 2025

Today's day 18. It's Thursday morning. Spent a good night at Caminha. And today's walk is about 35ks to Tui on the SP on the Spain Portugal border. Started early just after 6 and got to see the sunrise. Started in the wrong direction. Walked 500 m before I realized that I was going the wrong way and had to turn back, but managed to get over the bridge on the way to TUI. Had a coffee break about an hour into the walk and making good progress. I was making it a point to wish everyone hello or good morning that I meet. Um And some sections of this particular walk is on the main highway. So the traffic's basically heading at you at 100 kilometers an hour. And that's obviously the only issue with this Camino. There are large sections of the walk on the main road  from Lisbon onwards, but otherwise it's been really Nice, pleasant. Weather's good again. No rain. Might get that in Spain, so I have to be prepared. Just thinking of all the good people I've met, thinking of all the goodness and metta in this world.  and just having equanimity with everything that goes on. I think that's basically the lesson I've learned from this walk. Not to be reactive. 

 

 

I finished day 18 at TUI. That was about 35 kilometers, or just short of that. It's a really hot day, and I had problems getting into accommodation because my data ran out. But aside from that, I didn't have any other issues. Had a really hot thick chocolate and then went to the supermarket and bought some stuff, had a sandwich, olives, stayed in the hotel. It's just too tiring to do any sightseeing.  Spain's an hour ahead of Portugal, so I lost an hour, which made it difficult, and that's why I couldn't get in. Eventually, a young German lady allowed me to use her phone to call the hotel. Well, and they gave me the codes which they said they sent on Booking.com. I then found out that my Esim  data had finished. So, I had to download new data which I had to go to a cafe to do. But at least I got a good night's sleep. Got up early and now I'm walking out of TUI. I haven't booked any accommodation. Hoping to do around 35 to 40 kilometers, get as far as I can and then try and find accommodation.  I know I'm about 112 kilometers out from Santiago, so hopefully I will be able to finish the walk on Sunday. Iam going to try to keep the last day to a minimum amount of walking. That means two big days today and Saturday tomorrow. But Other than that, it's um again not been a complicated journey. If anything, led to really simplify the life to just walking, eating and sleeping, finding accommodation, finding food. Not much else to worry about. The only thing that probably I should have kept away is social media. still reading the news but not allowing it to interfere with my journey and my thoughts ( though the reality we have no control over what pops into our head and are they really "our thoughts" a real lesson in non self  , "annata " philosophy) .

 

 

Day 21 Camino Portuguese

 Day 21 5 October 2021 Walking into Santiago De Compostela

 

 

Day 19 and 20 Camino Portuguese 3/4 October 2025

 

 

Day 19 3 October 2025 

This is day 19, the 3rd of October 2025 

I started really early today because of the day the 1 hour ahead. Um technically I'm starting at 5:30 in the morning so it was still pretty dark and even by 7:30 it still was not very light but It's cool. I started off from Tui again in the dark with no one on the streets and it was a good 2 hours before sunrise I had passed a town O Porrino where I had a break and was a reasonable size town with some large churches. It was soon after the town that I passed the 100km maker to Santiago and  I met an Englishman walking. He had started from Tui but he actually drove to the next town O Porrino as he had started late because his flight was delayed. So he was only an hour or so into the walk when I met him. His name's Graeme and he lives in Brighton. He's an accountant. So we had a chat for about an hour till I got to Mos. Then we went our separate ways. . There were again magnificent views especially coming into Redondela .  I met up again with him just after Redondela and we walked the last 8 kilometers to Arcade where he was staying .The view of the verdugo river just before getting to Arcade from the hill was amazing . the Englishman  i met was planning to finish his walk on Monday a day later. He was doing just under the 100k mark. But it was nice to meet someone and have a chat all things general.  I managed to cover 40 kms. I didn't find accommodation but I was directed to a private Albergue and I knocked for quite a while and was about to leave when eventually someone did come and it turned out to be the cheapest stay at €12. There was no one else at the hostel but about 9:00 pm I think some walkers came in. They stayed in another room and I left fairly early. I never saw them. So I had a room to myself for €12 and it was a nice bathroom that was shared. That was fine. I had a good sleep anyway.

 

 

Day 20 4 October 2025

This is day 20th which is the 4th of October. Plan to finish on the 5th. Got up at about 4:00am . Went to the toilet twice. But otherwise felt pretty refreshed and glad that I managed to get a room. The hotel I was looking at booking was completely sold out again today. I got up early and started out at 6.30am in the dark. So for 2 hours I was in the dark and it made for slow going and it's been drizzling non-stop the whole morning but I got through to about 17ks in just under 4 hours. Plan was to get to the Caldas de Reis  is 33 kilometers hopefully by lunchtime. And that will give me the afternoon to get to Pedron which is another 19 kilometers. So it'll be a massive walk of 50ks.  I'll try and find accommodation nearer or just outside Pedron and give me some flexibility. But so far there isn't any. So I may have to walk to Pedron. But I have the whole day. So hopefully I'll get there but it may be late. Other than that it's coming to the end of the journey. Great experience. Nothing has unnerved me. I'm glad for that. And it just shows how life can be simplified and still be wonderful. The slow drizzle continued for much of the day and there were lots of pilgrims on this section and all the cafes were crowded  .The main town was Pontevedra which I passed in the morning and had coffee. There was a Dutch woman pilgrim who started off near Arcade and we basically walked till Caldas De Reis where she stopped. I had a break at Caldas before then walking the remaining distance to Padron.I managed to book a room in a small hotel but it was difficult finding it and I had to rush to get to Padron before the reception closed. It was a small motel with just a few rooms but got there at about 6.30 pm walking 53 kms. Found a place to do laundry and have dinner of chips and scrambled eggs at a small bar nearby,

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Camino Santiago Day 4

 

Day 4 18 September 2025. Santarem to Golega 34 kms .Got up again fairly early at about 5. Couldn't do the hotel breakfast  that starts at 7:00. So I basically had some yogurt. I did have an egg sandwich, but it didn't taste very nice, so I didn't eat it. Again, some cashew nuts and some fruit, orange juice, and then headed out  in the dark. I had to cross the castle wall of Santarem and basically walk down in the dark, which was a little nerve-wracking given that there was no fence line. But managed to get down and now on the fields. Today's walk is to  G O L E G A. It is uh 30 kilometers away. So I'm hoping to try and get most of it done before it gets hot, but at least the last 10ks is going to be hot. So it's going to be slow going and hopefully I don't get any of the issues I got on the second day with the stomach. Generally I don't see too many pilgrims. So, this section is obviously pretty light on with pilgrims. I suspect also that the weather has played a role given that today it's expected to be about 34 /35°. Same thing tomorrow. Tomorrow, Friday, the 20th.

 

 

The temperature is hopefully starting to fall off to the 24s which hopefully will be more comfortable to walk in.  Managed to book a room at an equestrian property that had rooms, most expensive so far at €55. Not probably the best. There's no breakfast.  I also had lunch which was fish and fortunately I couldn't eat the whole meal and then for dinner I just had an omelette with  fries again .Again couldn't finish the whole thing so I'm definitely not able to eat a lot on this trip. Anand my friend from Singapore visited which is a great surprise .We had a long chat and hopefully I'll meet up with him at the end of the journey.So far not had any major issues other than the ability to eat food or eat lots of food, but I'm managing well. Keeping my fluids up, but still probably a little dehydrated.  Yesterday I started off at about 5:45. and got to  Golega at about 1:30 and then had lunch. Waited around for the  reception to open up. I met some Aussies who are walking Camino . They are doing the same trip and have allowed for 26 days. So hopefully I'll get to Santiago with a few days to spare and then meet up with Anand before heading back. But that's still far way off. Today its just getting tfrom Golega to Tomaar which is 31about kilometers.  I'm hoping that as the weather starts to cool, I'll be able to keep up 30 kilometers a day, which so far I'm managing. And the next big town is, C O I M R A, and that's another three days away. And then after that, it'll be Porto. So, it's getting closer.