Kiwi Roaming

We all slept well but the day before really caught up with Imogen so she dozed and was slow to pack up meaning we didn’t leave until just before our midday checkout time.

Today we were walking from Apúlia to a village called Antas. The hotel wasn’t far from the coastline so we headed that way and saw the sea fog was retreating already. We walked past the remnants of this mornings fish market which was all being cleaned up and past people out enjoying their morning. The next bay had some old windmill looking structures with cute fences that seem to be homes now – one even had a Sky dish on the side of it – so we diverted up a path to take a closer look at these. Surprisingly after all feeling quite sore the night before our legs were working again ok.

Rubbish – Portugal’s rubbish disposal system is similar to other European cities where every 100-200m there are large bins for rubbish, recycling of all kinds and often a food waste bin as well. In France the bins themselves are underground and fascinating to watch being emptied, in Portugal they are above ground and often overflowing with odours to go with. It’s a great system however and makes waste disposal accessible to everyone.

Cobblestones – We have discovered that not all cobblestones are created equally, some a small and compact and don’t hurt your feet, others are larger and as they have moved with the weight of cars create divots and sharp edges to walk on. The worst are just big stones that were tipped onto a road and flattened with no formation at all, they are uneven and it’s been quite interesting watching a few expensive cars driving very very slowly on these surfaces. These ones really hurt our feet.

On our maps we have every vegan store pinned and this route took us to one in Marinhas a cute little town. On the walk into town we stopped at the most gorgeous souvenir shop, the X, the owner makes the majority of the stuff himself in his workshop, there is shade, seats, a toilet and a vending machine. Steve sat outside and watched hundreds of pilgrams stream past while Imogen and I browsed then queued – which took forever as he made a point of chatting with every walker and gave us a stamp.

In town Imogen went to a supermarket, pharmacy and then the vegan store, she must have spent an hour in there alone so the combo of these two stops were long not to mention the additional 2kgs she added to her pack. Steve and I were starved as it was 2pm so we walked into Cafe Cine and asked for a menu, the old man shook his head no, and said only “toast” and pointed to the toasted sandwich maker, then he said a string of other things – I recognised the word fromage – so said yes gesturing 2 obrigada (thank you if you are female), pointed to two pastel de nada’s a coke zero and an iced tea and he waved us off outside – no words required. 5 minutes later these yummy ham and cheese toasties arrived along with our drinks and cakes.

It must have been about 4pm when we stopped by the sea under some trees for Imogen to eat her lunch, so another long stop, but really nice to sit on the grass and look at the ocean. There were jetski’s here racing up and down and walkers passing us by.

Our accommodation tonight is on the Coastal Route so we had to leave the coastline itself and head inland slightly walking continuously through villages for many kms. At one point we crossed a major road, it was 5pm so traffic was chaotic. While waiting safely across the road for Imogen (who had stopped at a dairy for gum and a stamp) we saw two boys come off their scooter when the car in front of them stopped suddenly for the pedestrian crossing – luckily we were right outside an Ambulance depot and two paramedics walked casually out stopping traffic to pick them up and take them back (both boys walking ok) to get fixed up.

From here our journey was 2 hours of walking steadily up hill through urban streets that were 1.5 cars wide at best with houses or stone walls forming the edges of the road – so no room to pass. Like last night cars zoomed past us and we created havoc on a number of occasions when cars needed to pass each other – yes it was a two way road – and we were in the way. My 5-6pm hot flushes started again so I popped my crossbody bag into my backpack (which was roomier today with Steve taking some of my stuff) and found this a little better for heat management.

Antas Guest House – it was 7pm as we passed the little local store closing and 7:15 when we got to our Guest House. I knew there was a pool so dumped my bag and made a beeline for the pool, shoes and socks off and feet into the cold cold water for a soak, yay. We had a double room with extra bed tonight – so three single beds – in a reasonably sized room with a tiny bathroom. The facility had a huge guest space with couches and tables and a really well provisioned kitchen.

Steve and I showered and walked to the snack bar nearby only to find it closed. It was after 8pm and dark now and we didn’t realish the idea of walking on these narrow very dark roads to find somewhere else so decided to try Uber Eats! the first place we attempted to order from eventually rejected our order as we were too far away, so we elected one of the american chains and got ourselves 2 x Burger King chicken burgers with 2 x fries which took about 20 mins and came from where we are walking to tomorrow. The guest house had an honesty box fridge system so Steve had 3 x tiny Super Bock beers and I had a perrier with our dinner while Imogen made herself a feast from her vegan grocery shopping foods.

Steps = 28,935 or 19.10km