Walked: 25.0km (76.60km) | 5h17m (16h42m)
Followed: 0km|0km
Last night we decided to knock the first 5km off today’s 25km walk by taking the bus. We walked to what looked like a bus stop in the right sort of area and waited a while.
This is the perfect lead-in to my rant about transport systems. So here goes. One of the most important parts of a transport system is the information bit. I learnt this as an early user of the nascent National Cycle Network (NCN). You could only “enjoy the hundreds of miles” of the network if you could a) find it and b) follow it easily. Signage was dreadful and so the NCN fell short of expectations. However, this Portuguese bus service fails in epic proportions. Is this actually a bus stop? It looks like one but nothing to say it is. What stop is it? There’s no sign. We assumed it was the Mercado stop because we’d learnt that this used to be the market. It’s not a market now it’s a car park. What buses stop here and when? Who knows? There’s no information on that. And which direction do they travel? No one had any idea.
So we gave up on the bus plan and just started walking. This was the longest we’ve walked in a day so far – 24.99km according to Strava.
There wasn’t a lot of boardwalk today either. Things were generally a lot more uneven under foot. It was also very hot with little shade.
We walked along the beach for one section and saw these huge bags being used for erosion control.
We crossed a beautifully clear river. Rivers might look like this in the UK if we hadn’t privatised our water companies and stopped regulating them properly (watch the documentary “Dirty Business” if you haven’t already done so).
The water was so clear you could see shoals of fish from both sides of the bridge (zoom in).
We passed several groups of young people, some obviously scouts, others not, picking plastic rubbish from the beach.
We followed the littoral route again today as we’d done on the first three days. Jane had been reading about the picturesque Costa (coastal) route – they sound the same to the uninitiated, but are very different in character, although the destination at each stage corresponds. So, we didn’t climb up and down through the medieval villages that Jane had been expecting, and missed the famous Ponte de Nieva. If we did this again, we might switch from the littoral to the coastal route in Esposende although the terrain would have been more challenging. As it was, our paths were natural and mainly forested after lunch, featuring a snake, amongst other reptiles.
We found the only shady bush for miles for our picnic – great that we carried that with us, with plenty of water, as there are few services on this part of the littoral route.
After 23km the bridge across to Viana do Castel felt a bit long!
