20 km 28 May
Also today it will be a lot of sand. The weather forecast says just 29 degrees. Let’s tackle this last official day of the caminho… For us it is still two days because we like to go to Sines. But most of the walkers start in Porto de Covo.
Sand, Sand, and More Sand
There is no cafe or supermarket on this route, so we bring lot of water and food. We know that we walk on sand again. Just like yesterday.
Average because of the Sand
We don’t see anything like a cafe on the road. Some arrows are lost and that is why we get lost a few times. We walk in the dunes, which is broad, easy to lose track we walk on the sand and it is easy to take another sand path. We need to walk back to the ocean and when we keep the ocean left of us, we will be okay. I try to follow the arrows here, but I also follow the path where I walk. Sometimes you go wrong and it gives a strange kind of stress when you lose the arrows. Do you need to go back or just follow your instinct? Luckily the path is easy, just parallel to the ocean. Since it is so hot, I don’t walk back this time. We just cross the field.
When we see the ocean at the same level, we will dive in because it is hot. Finally we cool down in the sea and we have a long break. Our view is the island on the photo below. Willeke is very tired and falls asleep on her mini-towel after her dive.
Always good to rest, With renewed energy we are fit to walk further on the sand.
Santiago de Compostela Arrows!
Suddenly, out of the blue when the path goes to the beach again, we see caminho de Santiago signs. Easy we will follow these signs from Sao Torpes to Sines. Because the Fishermen’s arrows will stop tomorrow at this place. On the map we see that this route goes to Sines and then to Santiago de Cacem. You could follow from here to Santiago de Compostela. I like to do this few days walk to Tomar. Really thinking to continue the day after tomorrow but Willeke reminds me that I have booked the bus to Lisbon and a place to sleep there together with her.
Okay, next time…
Sleeping @ Pe na Areia
We go to Pe na Areia, translation: the foot of the sand. Where is it? It is Lote 2, which is different than number 2 on Google maps. But Dina, the owner calls us already when we were strolling around. She shows us around. It is a cute house. There is a kitchen with everything in it, including a coffee machine and several different coffees. You can have crackers, and some cookies or wrapped croissants. There is a nice garden and a living room with a book shelf where you can swap books! I will not carry a book this time. We see two tourists in the garden. The rest are walkers. What a pity for them that there is a lot of activity early in the morning when they will be still sleeping…
We go to a restaurant early, it is a nice town so it will be busy later like yesterday’s restaurant. We have nice fish and Willeke even tastes the Octopus. A man sitting next to us gets a super large portion, which of course he can’t finish at all. It is really great to be in contact everywhere with almost everyone: with other walkers, tourists, owners of the restaurants and hostels and even this man eating his dinner alone.
