Kiwi Roaming

Figuratively that is. We set off while others were still queuing for the bathroom on our longest day yet – 24km they said! (remember this important fact). Today we were walking from Vila Chã to Apúlia following the Litoral route again.

Toilets and Water Taps – You might be wondering about toilets and water on this hike. When we were still in Porto there were public toilets (some with attendants so cost 50c others free) and an abundance of water taps. Day 3 was Thursday and as I write this on Saturday I can say we have seen more locked public toilets than unlocked ones (vast majority) and water taps have become few and far between. So far we have been ripped off by a coin toilet once that gobbled our coin and wouldn’t open but otherwise have managed to find snack bars (bars) or cafe’s along the way and have only had to purchase 1 bottle of water too.

Coastal towns – This part of the route is a series of coastal towns strung together by boardwalks. Some look like Surfers Paradise, others like Mt Maunganui and others like quaint fishing villages. Until 5pm (we left at 9am) we were walking on endless boardwalks again but as we got closer to Apúlia we found ourselves on the Coastal route which was about 5-6km of narrow cobbled roads. We stopped in one of the Surfers like strips beside the coast for a pizza and salad for our lunch and toilet stop about midday and our friend the Atlantic Sea Fog came to join us for an hour or so – yay.

We saw lots of forts along the way, later in the day there were old men making bales of seaweed, and lots of folks out at dusk harvesting vegetables.

Curious things – There are a few curious things on the beaches. The first is people on the beach even in the fog, the second is everyone sits with these fabric fences around them – there is little wind so maybe for privacy? Then there are kms of these little pen like fences just above the tide line. We also saw “beach ashtrays” – yes you take one with you to sit on the beach and these sectioned off with fabric, we assume, changing areas. You can’t swim at many beaches and the waves are wicked huge, we did see surfers today and groups of old men sitting around playing cards topless.

Vic hits the wall – Sometime around 24km my body gave up and decided it couldn’t move anymore. Lizzo, Dartz and Avicii kept me going for a wee while (me with one earbud, Steve with the other and Imogen listening to the same playlist). Then I was bribed with the yummiest nutella filled croissant and iced tea I’ve ever had, but 5pm came and my pace just plummeted. I also got hot, turns out the same thing happened the next day from 5-7pm I was having wicked hot flushes. Sadly our walk wasn’t 24km as written in the spreadsheet but 30km! and it broke me.

Apúlia Praia Hotel – with fading light and walking on very tight cobbled roads where boy racers enjoyed buzzing us, we finally made it to our wonderful fabulous hotel about 7:30pm. I was broken so Steve and Imogen headed out to find food at a minimart which was luckily still open, somehow I managed to strip off my sweat soaked clothes and get into the shower, back in bed by the time we returned. We had a lovely king room and Imogen had a single with balcony which was a double bed, so she headed up there with her food and crashed. Somehow Steve managed to shower, wash my clothes because they did not smell good, then feed me a sandwich, 2 olives and 4 squares of chocolate before I fell asleep – in pain and exhausted.

Step count = 48,558. Or 30.75km.