Friday 1st April

30.5 km

Today was a bit of a strange day. We found ourselves trudging through mud for about an hour before I realised we hadn’t seen an arrow for a while (probably an hour using my amazing powers of deduction)! Usually, I’m pretty good at checking but for some reason, I hadn’t on this occasion. We were a long way off our route but managed to meander back onto the path, luckily, unfortunately, putting an extra hour onto the time before our first stop at around 11km. The next stop was at 28km but once again we seemed to lose the path, I retraced our steps and then a helpful farmer informed us that we were indeed on the correct path. The correct path did not line up with either of my guide books or my Camino ninja app which was all rather disconcerting.

Blisters and too many arrows

We trudged on, expecting another few kilometres but it turned out to be a few more than that! Feet were starting to blister and spirits were beginning to fall when suddenly Azinhaga appeared – famous for being the birthplace of José Saramago, famous for being the first Portuguese Nobel Laureate. We staggered into a café and had a few coffees and ice lollies whilst reviewing the feet damage of the previous 25km. Robyn decided it was taxi time and with only 5 km left I decided that it was time for some foot preservation and jumped in the taxi too. We read in the guidebook that overzealous Fatima caminoers were responsible for all the arrow confusion so hopefully, tomorrow will be a more normal following the arrows kind of a day

Goléga

We are staying in stables this evening, converted into a lovely wee guest house, so not bedding down with the horses in the hay. I would say this is a one-horse town but there are many references to the beasts and is home to the renowned Golegã Horse Fair. This National Horse Fair is an annual event which takes place over 10 days in November. During this time, the usually quiet town transforms into a lively horsey hub apparently and is on the bucket list of all discerning horse owners worldwide (so says the hotel owner)! We had dinner in a great restaurant this evening, the only downside being the plethora of bullfighting pictures adorning the walls with all their unwanted ferocity and gore :(.

Fingers crossed the blisters are miraculously better for another 30k tomorrow or another taxi may be being called…