The heat of the past few days made things very difficult, and while it is to cool a little (down to mid 20s), a new strategy had to be adopted. So we were on the road by 5.30am, walked about 17km and were settled in our hostel before noon.
In our preparation we leaned heavily on an excellent blog of two years ago by 'Magwood'. The area we are walking has many large gaps in suitable accommodation. To resolve this we used her solution,ie walk today's 17km, get picked up by the hostel owner in a big town ahead, and then get dropped back to that point again the following day. Mario and his wife Teresa of the Santarem Hostel did this for us. It is a truly wonderful hostel so we will stay here a second night.
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Sun up at Azambuja |
We used our head torches to find our way for the first hour today. When the sun had fully risen we found ourselves surrounded by fields of ripening tomatoes - they extended for kilometre after kilometre. We also saw our first vines - we have been told that it is expected that it will be a good year. The countryside is getting more attractive and we have pulled well clear of the greater Lisbon area.
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Ostriches on the road to Santarem |
We met our French couple again today. We also met our first pilgrim going to Fatima - the Fatima and Santiago routes are shared as far as Santarem. When passing through the Valada area today there were lots of people who seemed to be a little alternate, maybe even a bit hippyish!
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Fields and fields of tomatoes |
We are suffering with various aches and pains but are making progress. Fleur has pick up some nasty blisters so took the train today and may need to do this on and off again for the next few days until her feet recover.
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Tomato harvest in full swing |
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