Day 4, Oct 1: Viana do Castelo to Caminha

Distance 29.9 km, 18.6 miles, 1204' climbed.

Morning look across the Portuguese countryside to the Atlantic Ocean.

Today was a relatively uneventful day. I got my usual early start, and enjoyed the quiet morning with very little activity anywhere.

A cathedral in pre-dawn illumination.

And - yay - another Red Cross building! They have pretty impressive offices here.

Today was again notable for wonderful, isolated, quiet countryside trails. So much better than the entire first day, walking along busy motorways!

 I wondered several times today if any of these paths were the actual routes followed by medieval pilgrims, or if they developed in more recent centuries. Some of them appear to have been in use for a long time. It is kind of neat to think that, at least some cases, I was walking where hundreds of thousands if not millions of pilgrims have walked through past millennia.

I walked for almost 4 hours today before I saw another pilgrim. It was surprising how quiet and deserted the trails seemed.

Since early in my journey, I have noticed that the yellow arrows pointing the direction of the Camino to Santiago are often accompanied by a blue arrow pointing the opposite way.

 I eventually realized that the blue arrows were for pilgrims heading to the site of the Cathedral of Fátima, another important Catholic site south of Porto where I started. Those two pilgrimage routes overlap significantly, but heading opposite directions.

This little homemade memorial I saw along the trail pointed left to Fatima, 245km, and right to Santiago, 208km.

There seem to be lots more local water sources here in the northern parts of Portugal.

It's also interesting to see these little memorial pillars, where pilgrims like to leave their stones.

After lunch, I enjoyed several hours of wonderful seaside walking, with all the sounds and smells and sights that come with that setting. It was wonderful.

Overall, it was a harder day for me. It was harder physically, because I didn't sleep well last night thanks to all my itching. So I woke up tired, and was more sluggish in my hiking.

But it also seemed to be a harder day emotionally. Maybe all of the quiet time, not seeing any people for hours on end, built up a little bit. People have told me to expect moments in the grieving process when the emotions all come to the forefront again and seem hard to bear. Today was one of those days.

SOMETHING THAT REMINDED ME OF BONNIE

When I start out in the early mornings, none of the stores or restaurants are open yet. I have to prepare myself a little breakfast snack the night before to get me started, and then I have second breakfast after a few hours of hiking. But I've noticed almost every morning as I walk through quiet cities and pass pastry shops or small restaurants that I get a wonderful smell of baking bread, preparing for the coming day. It's a delightful aroma, and brings back many memories of Bonnie. She enjoyed baking bread, and had a few specialties that I loved and that she shared with the family. But she also loved to eat bread, especially in Europe, where they have so much more variety and flavor than our American bread. So being here and smelling the aroma of baking bread reminds me so much of her.

SOMETHING BEAUTIFUL IN GOD'S CREATION

I love my mountain trails, but today I have to give the nod to the majestic ocean views that I enjoyed for several hours. There is such a power in the thundering waves of the ocean, so relentless and consistent.

INTERESTING PEOPLE ALONG THE WAY

Today was unfortunately a day of less interaction- I just didn't see as many fellow pilgrims along the way. The first young couple I met in the morning were from Portugal, only planning to hike to the border with Spain and then go back. Then I chatted very briefly with what looked to be a father and daughter from Japan, who spoke very little English. Finally a nice couple, probably early 40s, originally from Brazil (Rio) but living in Porto for the last 8 years. They were tired of the political mess in their home country and hoping for something more peaceful here. I sure love having the confidence to speak with people in Portuguese.

I did notice today that when I encountered local people and said "bom dia" to them, several responded with "bom dia, bon Camino!" That was nice.

Tomorrow, I will leave Portugal and start the Spain portion of the walk!