Barcelos to Ponte de Lima

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We weren’t looking forward to a 33 km walk, but the country was beautiful, the weather was kind and the walk went well. We are in Ponte De Lima. Again, a place we’d never heard of and it is beautiful. Tonight is a little crazy in town as there is a bull running festival on and EVERYONE is out and about. All the restaurants have “RESERVADO” signs on their tables starting from 9.00pm so we snuck in early to eat. Neither of us was much interested in watching a bull being tormented -but after Lori headed off to her room, I walked back to the Ponte and had a look at what the commotion was all about.

A very fine looking black bull is basically being chased by about 300 young men – it is turning on them and then they run like mad. Seems all a little futile really except, every person in the town and the surrounding villages is here to watch from the safety of the bridge or higher ground. This all ties in with the various religious festivals that are going on with St. Anthony and St. John feast days being the most recent.

The walk (apart from being long) was great. We spoke over dinner and agreed that the first 25km is fine and even the next 5km are doable -it is everything after that becomes a bit of a challenge. We started at 8.15 and walked into town at 4.00pm averaging about 4.2 km an hour – with two stops for coffee and something to eat, it was all pretty doable.

We did see a couple of people struggling along the way, in particular a father walking with his young teenage son – the son looked done at about the 25 km mark. Unfortunately, their accommodation is here in Ponte de Lima so I suspect, it was a matter of resting and going again. I haven’t seen them tonight, but with the crowds, that is understandable.

So two more days of walking and we will have walked the length of Portugal as we come to the twin border towns of Valencia (Portugal) and Tui (Spain). The countryside is already looking very Galician and this beautiful valley is surrounded by hills and mountains – which means the only way out is up and over. We have a 400 meter ascent tomorrow which is over a pretty steep gradient and then it is down into another valley to the town of Picene. A 23 km walk with a slightly later start of 8.45. Melinda, David and Denise join us in Tui on Saturday and I look forward to them discovering the beauty of the Spanish side of the Camino Portuguese.