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Vairao to Arcos, Portugal.
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April 7th, 2017
After my ‘adventure’ yesterday I spent my time before dinner soaking myself in the cold pool before hitting a lovely luxurious hot bath. Mmm sometimes a bath is more than a bath if you know what I mean. The Romans were actually way ahead of us on that score.
Dinner was an interesting experience sitting on my own, smack in the middle of the restaurant surrounded by French and Brazilian people. Great Portugese style steak and rice though, complemented by a Portugese red wine that was so dry it sucked moisture from my body.
I retired & slept solidly until my departure at 930.
Getting dropped at Vairao which is where I got to yesterday, I spent 10 minutes reading and double checking the instructions before I set off 😀 having dialled in a country hits playlist which had me bopping once again.
This is real Portugal. I was walking in the country down twisty, little rural lanes with some great views along the way. Walking across bridges built by the Romans & walking a trail that is thousands of years old, I was reminded of the hundreds of thousands of Pilgrims & Romans who had walked before me. What were they thinking? How many of them were having an MLC?
The body behaved itself with the blister plasters and liberal Gurny goo and double socking working a treat. The old footballers hips are grumbling but a dose of Voltaren gel got them to shut up.
I knocked off the 10 kms back to Arcos which is a lovely little village, in 2.5 hours, despite deliberately going slow (so perhaps is was more like 7km) pausing to delete my football email account off my phone.
There are lots of Peregrinos on the road all of a sudden, and I talked to one group of them but I am guarding my solitary time. I spent the afternoon having a leisurely lunch followed by a siesta and getting prepped for a 20km day tomorrow.
MLC THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: Well… nothing. I spent the first week away struggling to adjust to not having my head full of thoughts and priorities. I found myself deliberately finding things to fill my thoughts. Today I revelled in just being on the road. No pressure. No priorities. Just letting go of historical wrongs one by one like some sort of step by step carthasis. (Very Romanesque)
STEPS: 14,702
BODY STATE: 8/10 with chemical assistance
PORTUGESE: 2/10 as I have found that magic phrase that means ‘I would like’ which in Portugese is ‘Gostaria’ which mixed in with Per Favor works a treat
WEIGHT: 87 I reckon but there again 3.5 kgs in a week would seem a lot despite having walked 126,614 steps or 101 kms.
WILLERTONS WORLD 