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And we’re done!

The official distances recorded on our Compostelas is 634km for Lori and me and 116km for Melinda, David and Denise!

This walk has been a phenomenally challenge for all of us. Lisbon to Porto for Lori and I was a complete challenge and one that I think is going to take a while to rationalize – it is in every way NOTHING like what we had expected and yet there were moments of true beauty. Porto to Tui the countryside improved and the walking became more like what we had been hoping for. With Melinda, David and Denise joining us in Tui, the walk took on another dynamic and we walked the last 116km as a group- we laughed and talked and groaned as hills seemed to appear from nowhere – but most importantly Galicia, mercifully looked after us with mild days, cooling winds and shady paths.

We have seriously confronted our own challenges and the walk that Melinda and Denise have done makes anything I have experienced pale in terms of fortitude – David has faced his own issues (and I continue to stir him about soaking his feet in thermal springs) but he could do the entire distance without a doubt.

And as for my walking buddy – Lori continues to remind my that when I am ten years older I have to think back to the time of me pushing her to go for “another walk” within 12 months of completing 800km and to remember what it would have felt like for her – the truth of the matter is that she can leave us all in the starting blocks – it has been a joy, again.

Well -that is it. We are in Santiago, we have had beer (the first for some of us), we have our Compestellas, we’ve had tapas and we’re packing up the walking gear and posting it home in the morning. Lori flys home next week and the four of us head to Croatia for a swim and to eat fish.

So that leaves only one question that none of us has been game to ask…what walk next….?

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Well we have done it – we made our destination of Padrón for the “night before” we walk into Santiago. We are in Padrón and have approximately 26km to go to reach Santiago.

The troops have done a sterling job and despite some grizzles, groans and creaks we are all here in one piece! Again, today was a lovely walk. We LOVE Galicia and particularly the climate. It is cool and damp in the mornings – wonderful for walking and then the fog burns off and we head into warm afternoons. PERFECT!

The challenge today was simply the crowds – we managed to avoid most of them during the morning because we got out promptly at 8.00am – the kids mercifully were still eating their breakfasts in the various albergues around town. We covered a lot of ground by the time we stopped for our first coffee and missed most of the crowds. We hoofed it off and managed to get into Pontecesures where lunch was ordered. As is the norm in Spain, as we had ordered coffees and cold waters a gratis snack was provided – each of us getting a salami roll – though, Lori and David had ordered bacon and cheese rolls. The looks on faces when they arrived was priceless- please imagine a FULL sized baguette filled with bacon and cheese – enough to feed a family each! Clearly bread is a cultural thing here in Spain and the Croatians in the group are taught to inhale it from a very young age!

The remainder of the walk was very pleasant and after a little searching and the help of google maps (didn’t all the pilgrims have google?) we found our accommodation on the outskirts of Padrón. We are in a beautifully restored country home which comes complete with pool and gardens. We are very pleased that the senora of the home is preparing dinner and we are able to sit around and enjoy the home.

So, again for the second time in as many years, I am writing “penultimate” night before walking into Santiago. Lori and I cannot quite fathom what we have just done. Tomorrow = another 600+ km walking to get to Santiago. This camino wasn’t what we had expected in terms of a comparison to last year – the Camino Frances is truly “the” Camino in our minds- but even this afternoon, thinking back over the past 4 weeks, we are both prepared to admit that there have been moments of true beauty that we won’t ever forget. This afternoon, Melinda and David were talking and admitted that although they have aches and pains, “it’s gone too quickly”.

This walking business is addictive and walking in such beauty as we have in Galicia is a privilege. The company has been sensational – the laughs loud, the grizzles quietly shared, the drinks…well let’s leave that where it is.

So tomorrow – officially we have 25.6 kilometres to walk to Santiago. Again, bitter sweet!

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Today the walk from Pontevedra to Caldas de Rei started with an overcast sky and eventually rain which turned into a very muggy and humid afternoon. In comparison to our walk out of Lisbon this was a wonderful way to walk. The path was very much through woods and fields and led to some great time walking through vineyards interspersed with corn fields. We knew we had a medium length walk and we started at 8.30 – what we didn’t count on were the number of people on the path and in particular the number of secondary students completing their Camino at the end of the school year. The path to Santiago cannot be considered to be quiet or contemplative with this amount of kids speaking high voltage Spanish – however, they spend little time in coffee spots other than collecting their stamp/selo for their pilgrim passport which leaves all us “oldies” some space to recuperate.

We were pleased that there were a number of places to stop for a break and have a coffee and perhaps one of the most interesting things was watching David’s reaction to men cooking huge vats of Octopus outside these coffee shops and stops along the way. Clearly the Spanish LOVE their octopus and we continue to marvel at the size of the octopus and the size of the serves!

We are in Caldas de Rei tonight which is a small town that is known for it’s thermal springs. Melinda, David and Denise took the chance to soak their feet in the thermal springs and were taken with how hot the water is. Out hunting for a venue for dinner, we spent the night dodging large school groups who are eating out in huge numbers.

Tomorrow we have approximately 21 km as our penultimate walk before walking into Santiago on Friday…for Melinda, David and Denise a great accomplishment having covered the distances they have in such a short time – for Lori and me – a very different sensation to last year – a sense of the surreal having walking over 600 km in a relatively short time and really under such different conditions. Let’s see how the next two days go.

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The walk from Arcade to Pontevedra was very relaxed and very enjoyable. We headed out after breakfast from our separate accommodation and met on the way and headed out of town and almost immediately we were walking on bush paths and alongside rivers. Although only a short walk of about 17km it was very enjoyable, not because of its length but because we were walking on bush trails alongside rivers almost the whole way.

We arrived at Pontevedra in pretty quick time and settled into our accommodation fairly quickly – Melinda becoming particularly excited as not only is Pontevedra a lovely city, being the second largest in Galicia, it has shops – and many of them! This immediately signaled a shopping afternoon which was only thwarted by “siesta”.

Pontevedra is located on an inlet opening to the sea and because of its fantastic location it was renowned in its time for the construction of wooden sailing ships. One of the most famous ships constructed in Pontevedra was Christopher Columbus’ Santa Maria.

Having arrived relatively early in comparison to other days, we had a wander around the old town and discovered alleys and lanes built into what would have been the old town’s fortifications. Not much of the original fortifying wall remains, but what does is highlighted at the point where the new museum is located. The churches and public buildings, including the Monastery of San Francisco are amazingly well preserved. The city has won many awards since it made it’s old town car free – so many people, particularly after siesta, are out walking and enjoying street after street of cafes, restaurants and to David’s delight, craft beer taverns.

We visited one of the craft beer establishments and while David partook of beers, we enjoyed the local white wine. Dinner, on the recommendation of the tavern owner, was in a fantastic pulperia (restaurants that specialise in serving Octopus in Galicia) where we ordered tapas style seafood and finished off the meal with a tortilla. We wandered back to our accomodation with a light Galician drizzle settling in – one of the locals jokingly saying “welcome to Galicia in summer”. Pontevedra is again, one of those towns that we had never heard of, but would visit again. A great town and a great night.

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The guide books said it was only 23km but it took from9.20 until 4.00pm and it seemed to take forever – even for us oldies. The new amigos did a fantastic job especially as this was only their second day of walking. The weather was overcast but humid almost the entire time and we basically were only a set of hills away from the ocean the whole way. This is a very different experience to that of last year where the air in the Galician hills was cooling and the Galician fog didn’t lift each day until about 11.00am.

The day was made longer because of the climbs and the subsequent “downs” which today seemed ridiculously steep on at least one of the descents. It’s the first time that I have had to snake it down a hill to try and reduce the pressure on the shins. The descents were made worse because we were doing them on asphalt.

We managed a couple of stops along the way for coffee and snacks and the “collections” from breakfast were added to purchases of coffees and cold drinks. The biggest downer of the day were the groups of secondary school kids who at the end of the year are doing their pilgrimage to Santiago – the tranquility of walking through the bush was shaken up a little to the sounds of Spanish “doof doof” music which seemed to be accompanying most of the school groups walking.

We made it to Redondello which is the town out from Arcade and basically we were expecting a pretty smooth run into the town with about a 5 km walk. What we had not anticipated was the three very steep climbs which would take us up to the final run “down” into Arcade. Having walked for three weeks and being pretty walking fit, even Lori and I had a time of it. To the credit of the Denise and Melinda and with David’s coaching- the new amigos made it in and only about a half an hour separated us. Credit where credit is due. The ‘before’ and ‘after’ shots really say it all.

After showers we headed over to their hotel for a drink before dinner which was at one of the only restaurants open on a Monday night in Arcade. I have to say that Melinda has taken to the Vino Bianca Sangria’s which clearly are very healthy because of the fruit that is chopped up that goes into them – the Cointreau is clearly orange based too!

So tomorrow we have the shortest walk of the entire Camino – 12km. I have now learnt to not comment on this because who knows how long it may take to finish 12km.

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That was a hoot. Well it was more like herding cats – we were all over the place…some forward, some back and some in between… and it was a blast. Pace is yet to be determined – and actually who cares if it isn’t – but the amigos were as blown away with the walk through the country as we were a year ago. Photo stops commenced almost immediately and really didn’t stop the whole day. The funniest was watching Melinda take a selfie and then not accounting for her back pack, falling over onto her backside – elegant recovery and much laughter and off we went again.

The walk was great most of the way – with a couple of sections on asphalt, but pretty gentle the whole way. Luckily all the guide books gave us alternatives so that we could avoid the highway walk and the industrial area walk – so we were all happy.

At the end of the day we agreed to meet at 6.15pm to head back to Portugal for dinner (we’ve been transported back to Tui for the night and then we are taxied back to where we finished today to start in the morning). At about 5.15 in comes a text message from Melinda – “tell Lori we’ve found the best spritza blanco sangria in the square – come on down”. And so we did. Clearly the shower assisted with the recovery. We then crossed the river and headed back to the fortress town of Valenca for a pilgrims meal – 15 Euro for three courses with wine included. We then walked back to Spain and had an ice-cream to finish the night off.

So tomorrow a slightly longer day – 23 km but with a slightly later start due to the pick up…we are off to Arcade on the sea…Galicia on sea…should be interesting.

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Relaxing day off in Tui with the added pleasure of the amigos from home joining us …and a surprise in Tui – this is the town San Salvado came from and as statue and plaque commemorating his contribution to WA is in the town – wish someone had consulted with the sculptor about how our Aboriginal women and children actually appear as opposed to the “interpretation” he/she has chosen.

So we start the walk to Santiago in the morning with five not two…

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Well we made it…506 km completed in 19 days of walking and that’s Portugal ✅. We are surprised how quickly that has gone and we still stick to our lines that we would not recommend the walk from Lisbon to Porto as a “must do”. However, since Porto things have been “back to normal”.

It was only a 17km day today and we made it to the twin border towns of Valenca and Tui in about 4 hours. Interestingly, got chatting away and missed a couple of turns – this hasn’t happened to us before so, thinking caps are back on as we prepare to welcome the new amigos, Melinda, David and Denise tomorrow.

The old part of Valenca is very pretty and is built within the old fortress. Valenca was given its name in 1262 – interesting to walk through a dry moat to enter the old walled city fortress. We walked through the fortress exited the other side and came to the International Bridge which took us from Portugal to Spain – photo opportunity! Amazing still that you cross a river, change languages, histories change and the culture changes…we just don’t get that really – except I’m positive that our colleagues in the ‘east’ think the same of us in the ‘west’ sometimes.

Having made it to Tui we wandered around the old part of the town and got the sense that this is very much a medieval town centre. The Cathedral de Santa Maria dates from 1120 – with some renovations in 1251! So we have set our watches forward and hour, watched the Spanish come out for drinks and tapas before heading off to dinner at 9.30pm…and at 10.35 it is twilight…the kids are outside making a racket and the walkers are all safely tucked into their rooms.

Tomorrow is a day off – so a late start – the washing was done this afternoon and its basically a wander around town and then meet the newbies at the bus stop at 7.30 and we begin the last 100 or so kilometres on Sunday morning.

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I loved it – Lori hated it. Although today’s walk was only 22 km long it took us 6 hours…why? …because we had a long climb today (400 metre ascent) which took us up the Labruja valley to a high pass with spectacular views of the VERY green countryside and then we descended via the Coura valley to San Pedro de Rubiaes and on to Pecene where we are staying the night. Tonight is our last night in Portugal – as tomorrow we cross the border and stay in Tui.

Lori hated it because although it wasn’t as high as the first day last year, it was certainly steeper and UP is not her favoured style of walking.

The BEST thing about the steep climb as we reached the “alto” was that there, set up BEAUTIFULLY were tables and chairs and a husband and wife team in a little caravan serving coffees, cold drinks and for those that wanted it, fresh omelettes made to order. It felt just like last year as group by group made it to the top with a welcoming cheer of calls of encouragement to the next arrivals. Lots of chatter before we all slowly headed off and commenced heading down into the Coura valley.

The house we are staying in tonight is called Casa da Capela – a beautifully restored chapel and home attached with 7 rooms to rent. A young couple have set it up and the gardens and views are beautiful. They have done a great job by respectfully treating the bones of the building – lots of exposed granite and combined with modern facilities.

There were so many amazing water views today. In valleys, water flowing everywhere and everything green. We can certainly tell that we are close to Galicia and to the border. So, we can hardly believe it – we’ve walked 489 kilometres – 17 to go in Portugal and then the last 114 to get to Santiago.

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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.