Camino Day 6: So it goes

Ponte de Lima to São Roque on the Camino Portugués Central Route

Distance walked: 12.8 mi (20.8 km)

Total walked so far: 79.4 mi (127.8 km)

Route taken: Ponte de Lima to São Roque

Great pilgrim meal last night: fried bacalhau, kale, potatoes, rice, 0.5L vinho verde, and dessert - all for 10€! I’m glad I went with a private room as well. It rained hard all evening so if I have to be cooped up I may as well have my own space.

Today is a harder day, over 12 miles but with a steady climb in the latter part. Depending on what the weather does it could go a lot of different ways. That doesn’t change that I’m excited to get out and walk solo!

Booked a cheap private room for tonight as I’ll likely prefer that if today is a tough one. I also booked a private hostel for tomorrow night - my last in Portugal! - as I want to stay inside the walled city of Valença and there’s a nice looking hostel there. The next morning I’ll walk across the bridge to Tui, Spain.

It’s raining again - so it goes. Put on my poncho once again, and walked down to the old city and had breakfast before heading out. Leaving at 730AM, this was among my earliest starts so far. Walking across the city’s namesake bridge it was evident just how much higher than normal the river was. Little did I know what was in store…

Before long it was obvious that the path was completely under water - so it goes. I climbed up on the rock wall on the left of this picture and carefully bypassed the flooded section without falling off.

I hit another flooded section and followed a detour path but that eventually hit a dead end - so it goes. I took off my shoes and socks, donned my flip-flops (almost lost one and had to comically chase it downriver), and started walking in the (at times knee-deep) river.

A few minutes into my river expedition, I got a message from someone in our Casa Fernanda group. They recommended avoiding the very section I was in and to go around it on the road. A bit late for me, so I waded through the river to the road and made a detour to rejoin the Camino after the flooded section.

The rest of the walk went pretty well - though the climb late in the trip was challenging at times. I rolled my (oft-injured right) ankle towards the end but it didn’t seem too bad - so it goes. Thanks to kind Canadian friends, I shared in a sandwich break at the summit. It was super tasty!

The descent went fine albeit windy, and I finally got out of the on/off again rain. This low cost resedencial housing should work out ok, albeit a little boring. Maybe I should have skipped booking it and pushed on to the albergue in the next town? The hot water here seemed to run out very fast. So it goes - I’ll check with the host when they drop by.

On the whole, I feel good about today. For me, each of these little acceptances of things going off track and dealing with them as they came was healthy progress for me. As family and friends will attest, I’m often pretty bitchy when things don’t go my way - though meds have helped with that. Honestly my mood was good all day - even while wading in the river. It was at that time I thought of titling this post “sometimes you just have to laugh!” I suppose on the Camino you have little choice - barring bailing entirely, of course. You just have to deal with whatever the universe throws at you. The real test will be to bring that positive mindset back home with me. I aim to do just that.

Soon I’ll head to the nearby restaurant for dinner. This is a picture of my neighbors. So far it’s just me here at the house so it may well be a quiet evening. I think I’m ok with that. I haven’t read my book since the train ride to Porto and I’d like to get back to it. Spoke to soon - my fellow Californian is looking for a place to stay. That’s ok too! Maybe I won’t eat dinner alone tonight?

I’m excited that I’ll soon be in Spain! 🇪🇸