Maia to Rates – 27.3km, 6.75hours, Wednesday, 19 September

It’s still pretty smoky out there.  We are heading about 7km west of one of the fires in a few days so we need rain soon. People are still walking the trail now but it’s hard for us to tell which way the fire is moving. There is a highway between the closest fire and where we will be walking and that may halt any advance further west towards our path. We’ll play it by ear when the time comes but listening to local advice will be paramount in our minds.  Some pilgrims we have spoken to plan to walk around any evacuated area but we might use a taxi.  We have walked the Camino enough times to know that one of the lessons it teaches us is to know our limitations.

Another lesson we learned on the Camino is to not be afraid of the unknown.  I’m still shaking my head at the pilgrims we met in Porto who were just sitting there, waiting for the fires to be put out.  They didn’t know what to do if local authorities told them the trail was closed.   That’s not a good plan at all.

We met a couple dozen pilgrims today while walking or in a cafe. The majority that I could recognize by their accents / languages were Americans, then Germans. We also were reminded that a good portion of the Caminho Portugués is only called that if you are walking North, towards Santiago.  That’s the way the yellow arrows / trail markings point us.  Often there are blue arrows on the opposite side of the pole, tree, pylon, etc. that point the way to Fatima. We met our first Fatima bound pilgrim today too. This young French lady passed by us today but she said that she hadn’t seen another Fatima pilgrim in several days.  She also said she walked south out of Ponte de Lima two days ago, past that closest fire, and she met several pilgrims heading north that day. She could tell by the smell that it was a fire but she hadn’t checked the news to find out that there were many uncontrolled wildfires in her path.  Blessed are the non-curious, as they shall inherit the earth…. worms. 

By the way, I was reminded of the pilgrim. From a few years ago who wrote on the Camino Facebook group that the Camino Portugués was a terrible walk and he dropped out after two days. He said that he had walked the Appalachian Trail and the Pacific Crest Trail and that the Camino wasn’t like those.  No kidding. It’s not supposed to be at all like those nature walks.  Today’s walk was 6.2% natural trails and 93.8% either cobblestone roads, small cobblestone sidewalks, cobblestone roads covered by tarmac or cobblestone sidewalks covered by cement. The first patch of natural trails was a 500m section in a eucalyptus forest near a monastery.  As I walked that bit, my feet were happy-dancing all the way down the way.  I considered walking back up the slope to get more “natural” walking but that made as,  n much sense as ashtrays on motorcycles.  Another 600m section was mostly packed earth but it pretty much just lead us down to a 12th century bridge…that was covered by cobblestone.  The last 500m was what I called a lazy man’s D-I- Y cobblestone street. It was packed earth but covered in millions of loose cobblestones. Finally, there was about another 100m section of natural trails but that was spread over about twenty different sections with none of them being more than about 8m long. 

I n other news, I set a new record today.  Last year I fell on the third day of the Camino. This year, I managed to beat that by a whole day. Fortunately, I didn’t end up with any cuts or bruises like a year ago but this was definitely more embarrassing and my back is now killing me. Tonight, I’ll be taking lots of Camino Candy (ibuprofen 400mg, also known as Vitamin I on The Way).  So that everyone can have a laugh, I’ll explain what happened. Late in the walk, at about the 23km point, we were walking on a very thin road with a fair amount of traffic. It was on the marked Camino trail, what can I say?  I was tired.  Melanie was about 20m in front of me, walking on a thin, sandy “trail”, just inches from the road.  I was was too but I was looking at an approaching car.  That sandy trail also has some rebar grating over the drain below. My foot was caught in mid-step by the metal bar and I started to fall.  I managed two or three steps to try to catch myself before all hope was lost.  I broke my fall with my hand but managed to twist myself quickly enough to really land on my backpack. My iPad survived!  My back didn’t.  Melanie heard the commotion and ran back to try to get this up-ended turtle rolled over and back on his feet.  It wasn’t working. Two men in a truck stopped in the middle of the road and it took both of them to get me up and out of the roadway before the next car came racing around the corner.  Melanie did try to direct traffic but I’m not sure a driver would have really obeyed her waving arms. It could have been worse but it wasn’t. I’m thankful for that.

I’m tired and need some sleep so – peace y’all.

Sweet dreams to George and Leo.