My diary of walking c154km of the Camino de Santiago (Portuguese Way). You can find out more about the Camino Portuguese here.
A cloudier day but still hot saw us walk from Caldas de Reis to Padron (famous for its peppers, more of which later).
Our accommodation did not offer breakfast but luckily a hotel 200 yards away and on the Camino did. A nice plate of scrambled eggs and a fresh coffee was just the thing to fire us up. Another early start, we were enjoying breakfast at 0730 before hitting the trail.
The miles seemed to fly by this morning and it didn’t seem too long before we were enjoying a mid morning coffee. The route is well served by cafes, bars and restaurants, it really is an industry in its own right. After coffee was a longer stint with some ascents and descents, nothing too taxing but the heat and humidity in the woods made it hard going. A stop to take on water saw an enterprising chap give us a piece of paper advertising his cafe and peregrino menu. €6.50 for 2 courses and a drink! How do they do it so cheap? The cafe was a couple of km up the road so that was lunch sorted and for €6.50 it was an absolute bargain.
After lunch it was a bit of an uninspiring trek into Padron, it never seemed to end. We got there eventually and first stop was a cold beer before finding our albergue. We’d booked a private room for 4 and once again it was perfectly adequate with a great bathroom. Sure, it was a little musty and right on a noisy road but we got a good night’s sleep.
Prior to that we wondered around Padron, had a couple of beers, and found a highly rated restaurant with the grumpiest staff. Padron is famous for its peppers and I was keen to try them. They were on the menu but grumpy waiter bloke just shook his head. Seems you can’t have Padron peppers in Padron!
The next day was our last and also our longest, the guide book reckoned about 24km with some reasonably large hills. The weather was forecast to be sunny and 30+ degrees so we took the decision that we’d get an early night and try and set off before 0630 to try and beat the worst of the heat.
The penultimate day then, a further 24+km done.
