Darque to Orbitur Caminah - Last Night in Portugal

Another long day! Thirty kilometers back to back, 18 miles about each day. While that might not seem like a lot unless you’ve walked these rock, stone, mosaic paths you can’t really describe what it’s like to walk them. 

This Camino doesn’t compare to the elevations that we’ve done on previous hikes, but the rocks make it very difficult. This morning I had a hissy fit! My first and possibly only Camino hissy fit. We got up and walked over the bridge to a pretty active busy city. We knew today would rain, we knew today would be long, and we knew there was little opportunity for coffee for at least an hour and all that combined might have presented a perfect storm. Plus the rock path everywhere!!!!!

I forgot to mention the pictures I shared yesterday, but everyday I question,”who laid these rocks?”...
Well yesterday, we saw them doing just that. Sweet, jolly nice guys wishing us a “Bon Camino”, it was hard to be mad at them... they proudly told me that that the bricks wer laid 300 for years!!!!!

So crossing the bridge was almost a graffiti like display of yellow arrows, yellow arrows everywhere but once past the public auberge there were none. Assuming there would be another opportunity for coffee and wanting to find trail I passed what appeared to be the only coffee stop.

A man, upon asking pointed to a road that he claimed was Camino, but there were no arrows and we had to cross a very busy street. For about ten minutes, I saw nothing to state we were on the Camino. For about ten minutes I was cursing under my breath (and maybe not so under my breath) at how miserable I was today.

Then there was a half arrow pointing to the direction of a church and a pilgrim!!!! A pilgrim putting sunscreen on getting ready to feel the sun that was about to possibly present itself. It ends up he is from Porto.  We actually saw him walk in front of our bungalow this morning but didn’t realize it was him. Poor fella when he asked how we were I was too honest! He too said he had a frustration with the arrows this morning and bless his heart offered to backtrack to get me coffee. His name is Joao and has a shepherd's heart! Sweet soul who walked with us until we found a small cafe slightly off trail. We enjoyed coffee together and said our goodbyes. We would walk another two hours beyond his stage tonight so not certain we will see him again. I think he ends his walk tomorrow. Anyway, we are thankful for this trail angel who helped me get coffee and listened to my frustrations...

I got directions from the cafe on how to get on a coastal path. In ten minutes, we all exhaled thankful to be on a path near the water and smooth boardwalk and dirt for at least some of the duration. We had one more stop for drinks of fresh squeezed orange juice at a beautiful beach side restaurant.  I secured another campsite bungalow for tonight. It had a wonderful staff who told us to take our time when I called thinking we’d arrive late. They stayed with us to make sure everything in the bungalow worked and even made sure we had their after hours number if we had problems. A wonderful staff and bungalow at Orbitur Caminha!

Tonight is our last night in Portugal!

Spain is across the water and we’ll catch a small boat over in the morning!

Jordi joins us Wednesday!!!!!

We thought Annie was going to join us for two weeks.  In 2016, Annie and Henri walked into St Jean Pied de Port with us where we built an arch and walked through so triumphantly. Annie was hoping we’d be up in Santiago as previously planned, so unfortunately our change in plans changed that. Maybe we’ll be together in some way as she is going to venture out on some Camino path! So hope we meet up!!!!

Lynda(le), if you’re reading this I don’t get your contact info when you comment to the blog so have been unable to connect! I know you and hubby are departing from Porto this weekend! There is a chance we can meet up as girls and I plan to keep hiking after Santiago arrival. So we might be in the area when you arrive!!!

It appears I don’t see all comments, and those I do I don’t get a way to respond as it doesn’t share email addresses. 

Looking forward to seeing old friends!

Hugs!

And a last good night from Portugal until about four weeks from now! We’ll be back then!!!

Esposende to Darque (campsite) & Dinner with New Friends!

I loved our hostel last night, Hostel Eleven. They had a nice breakfast with a chocolate cake and urged us to take a slice. We did not know that the sweet lady making sure we were relaxed for our walk was married to the owner we met last night until we were leaving. She said,”my husband came home last night and said two beautiful young girls arrived last night”. She was so nice, they had a little cabinet with Camino souvenirs in it and I bought the girls two beautiful Camino shell necklaces at a very reasonable price. I liked that they had a few items for sale, pasta and wine for minimal markup if any. It’s nice to arrive at a hostel where you can purchase inexpensive items to make food. 

We hit the road, walked into a church nearby that was open (seems unheard of) and there was a pretty Camino stamp for our pilgrim passports. As we got out on the road, a man approached us heading towards us on the boardwalk.  He looked familiar... it was the hostel owner with one of our bowls that we store food in! We had tucked some cheese, meat and piece of chocolate cake in there and would have been devastated if we lost one of our bowls. That was so nice of him!!!! 

There are a few routes out of town and we had stopped in the church (and oddly a gorgeous jewelry store), so this possibly was a big inconvenience for him to find us. What great, thoughtful people and great place to stay!

We walked as much of the coastal route as we could until it appeared we had to go inland. We had a nice little stop for coffee and orange juice. We are always excited to get a place that serves fresh squeezed orange juice! And this stop did!!!!


We stopped about forty five minutes from tonight’s marketed stage. We like getting bungalows, and Orbitor Camp ground in Darque had a special for pilgrims. I got one with a kitchen so we could cook. Instantly, upon turning on the stove we blew a fuse, and this repeated itself a few times. :-(

Amazing coincidence though... as we were huffing and puffing to our bungalow and two beautiful German ladies were sitting out on the small deck of theirs enjoying wine. They had huge smiles and were so sweet and welcoming.  They were not doing this Camino but have done the Camino before. We would find out these two gals are experienced hikers with amazing accomplished hikes. They actually met hiking several years ago. Their names are, Christina and Barbara, who invited us for the best dinner serving fresh vegetables and vino! It was so yummy!!! We took our tortilla over there (Spanish tortilla) to serve since our stove didn’t work. Awesome conversation and I hope friends I will meet again! Aynsleigh without prompting grabbed dishes to wash and we were appreciative as it was nice to share conversation with like minded ladies. 

Thank you friends!!! We loved our evening with you!!!