Santarem – Golega

30 March 2018

34.4km

During the night, I woke up and could hear the rain falling … was this the beginning of our rainy days on the Camino?

However, at 6:00 the next morning, there were only a few clouds in the sky. Fortunately, our clothes dried completely during the night and we were ready to start walking at our usual time of 7:00.

Walking through the streets of Santarem

Tiled street name on a wall in Santarem

The owner of the restaurant where we’ve had dinner last night, told us about the magnificent viewpoint at “Portas do Sol” (Gates of the Sun) from where we could see the Tejo river and suggested that we visit this site before we start walking today. It was a beautiful place with lovely gardens and the view was indeed breathtaking. We took a few photo’s before we’ve started our journey for the day.

The entrance to the “Portas do Sol”

Stunning view of the Rio Tejo

We’ve headed down steeply on woodland paths to leave Santarem behind. At the rail line we’ve missed the medieval bridge that we were suppose to cross, but fortunately realised this about 300m later and turned around to follow the right way.

Try and stay on your feet on this steep downhill with wet rocks underneath!

Leaving Santarem behind

As we’ve got to the country road, the rain started to fall out of nowhere – the one moment there were no clouds in the sky and the next moment the rain bucketed down! And this was the story of our day – from sunshine to light rain to intense showers and then some sunshine again!

Rain clouds gathered in the distance

We’ve decided not to take the path that run through the crop fields because it was a muddy affair! We rather took the road where there was less chance of getting mud up to your knees! But this meant we were walking on a small shoulder next to the road where we had to be very cautious of the Portuguese drivers – difficult choice to make!

Soaking wet next to the road on our way to Vale da Figueira

As we’ve walked into Vale da Figueira, the rain subsided and the sun came out for half an hour. We’ve stopped at one of the cafés to have big mugs of hot coffee (for the cold) and orange juice (for energy), as well as some sweet pastries.

Time to dry out in the sun with coffee and sweet pastries – I must admit, I don’t look impressed!

After some refreshments we were ready to continue. At least the sun was shining (well, for now) and we’ve passed beautiful cork trees. We did not know the reason for the numbered trees, but it was amazing to see how the cork was removed from the trees. We knew that Portugal is one, if not the, world leader in cork production and we presume that these trees must be of utmost importance to them.

Cork trees marked with numbers

The road changed between country lanes and farm tracks. It was quiet roads and we’ve only seen the odd pilgrim here and there. Today however, we were completely alone on our journey. The weather constantly changed from sunny weather to heavy downpours … we’ve later decided to put our warm jackets in our backpacks and only kept our rain jackets on.

Farm tracks are always nice for walking … but when rain is looming in the distance, it becomes a mud bath!

With the heavy rain, the farm tracks – at some points – almost became impossible to walk. Berto avoided being caught in the mudholes because he could give longer steps than me … but I was not that lucky! Time and time again, I’ve ended up in the mud!

Mud walking!

We’ve crossed a bridge where the Alviela river flows (a tributary of the Tejo river). It was literally flowing as if it was in flood – in a short time, we’ve experienced a lot of rain!

The Alviela river in flood because of the constant heavy rain we’ve had since this morning

As we’ve got to the option route, the rain stopped. We’ve chosen to continue on the farm tracks because we did not want to walk alongside the main road. The contrasting colours of the dark sky and green crop fields were amazing and we could take some nice pictures. But as the heavy rain started again, there were no time for any more photographs and we just had to put our heads down and walk through the rain.

Beautiful colours of dark rain clouds and green crop fields

For the next few kilometers we’ve done some serious mud walking! I was really looking forward to a hot shower and some dry clothes! As we’ve got to Azinhaga, I was seriously fed up with the rain. But Berto knew there was one thing that would kept me going … pastel de nata!

We’ve walked into a bar where we had steaming hot coffee and pastel de nata – yep, now I was ready to continue again!

Pastel de nata is the best medicine for a wet pilgrim!

Just after Azinhaga there was another option of walking on more farm tracks to avoid walking next to the busy main road (N-365). But we’ve done so much mud walking, that we’ve decided to rather take the (more dangerous) option of walking next to the main road without any shoulder! And then it started to rain again – heavy rain – and I can honestly say this was NERVE WRECKING! It almost felt as if the Portuguese drivers wants to see how fast they can get pass you!

NOTE: I would not recommend any pilgrim to take this route next to the busy main road – doesn’t matter how muddy the option route is! There are no shoulder to walk on and the speeding cars makes it a very dangerous walk (especially in rainy conditions).

Berto is just soaking wet – not even his so called “gore tex” boots could withstand the intense rain – not to even mention the dangerous walk next to the main road!

It was already 17:00 when we’ve arrived in Golega. I felt lucky to be alive!

Accommodation – Golega:

We’ve walked to the Inn Golega where we would spend the night. Elsa, the very friendly owner of the Inn Golega, made sure that our room was warm and that there was enough hot water for a shower. She made us some coffee and offered the washing machine and dryer for our clothes.

A warm and cosy room with big bath towels – such a treat after a very wet day on the road!

The rain stopped while our clothes were in the dryer and we’ve decided to walk to a nearby bar for a hot dinner. We were probably the only foreigners there and the locals looked curious in our direction! I could see the waitress found it stressful to serve us, but in the end she has done a great job and we’ve enjoyed some good red wine and a big plate of lamb chops and chips before we went back to our room.

Before we went to bed, I’ve had a close look at my feet … more blisters appeared, but I’ve also had a “funny” itching, but painful, ankle. I was not sure what the reason for this was … hopefully I can walk this off.

What a wet and stressful day … and tomorrow, yet another 30km is awaiting us!