Walked: 21.6km (51.60km) | 4h17m (11h25m)
Followed: 0km (0km)
I mentioned yesterday the strong connection the coast has with fishing and the homages, humble and grand, to fishermen who have lost their lives.
The most significant one so far was this one that we passed on the way out of Pávoa do Varzim this morning.
Here are some stills from it.
And here is a video of the whole thing. Really quite moving.
Once again we started our walk on boardwalk, but today it gave way to cobbles and roadside. We are now falling into a pattern of walking for about 5km which is taking us about an hour – we are moving at a good pace – and then stopping for 30-45 minutes and this seems to be working quite well. Our second stop today was after a long, shadeless boardwalk through agricultural land. The Yellow Windmill pilgrim stop was in the middle of nowhere and a real magnet for a steady stream of hot and tired walkers! Not really a cafe, just access to a quirky rural home with a cold drink fridge, one (very popular!) loo, a few pilgrim nicknacks, and a selection of blister plasters! We got our ‘stamp’ and sat on rickety plastic chairs under some trees to eat our snacks of fruit and nuts.
Setting off again, we turned left at the exit when we should probably have turned right. But this took us into a nice stretch of woodland…
…and into the centre of Apúlia. This is an off-piste diversion that probably added a kilometre or two to our walk today.
We found our way back to the Litoral (beach side) trail thanks to the amazing Camino Ninja app and rewarded ourselves with our second Açai ice cream bowl of the trip so far before picking up another short section of boardwalk.
The bridge into Esposende (Ponte D Luís Filipe), our final destination for today, was quite significant.
And on the other side was the biggest trail marker we’ve seen so far.
Walking along the river towards the centre of Esposende and our accommodation we saw more boardwalk going in.
And the kite surfers were out in force.
We are staying in the Esposende Guest House and our room is absolutely huge and commands a good view of the street below.
Not what we are used to at all.
