5/11/22 Azambuja to Valada

Interesting night at the albergue last night. 16 of us in the bunk room, 1 camping in the garden and another sleeping on a cot in the kitchen.

Most of these peregrinos will be moving onto 32K walk to Santarem tomorrow so this may be the last time we see them since we are not ready for those big walks yet. Still working through foot issues.

The bunk mates included Craig(Scotland), Andy(UK), Owen & Dan (Ireland & UK), Leon (Germany) , a few French guys walking around in their underwear (come on man put some clothes on!), and then right at the end we got swamped by our remaining bunk mates – a group of Portuguese peregrinos headed to Fatima (the yellow jackets).

We had a goodbye dinner with Craig and Andy. Andy is on his first Camino and has a 45 pound backpack with a tent, stove, multiple changes of clothes…..Insane. He is going to ship stuff home once he gets to Santarem.

We are taking a short 13 K walk today to Valada since the accommodations on this stretch are very limited. Having lunch next to the river. Nice

Staying at Dois Caminho albergue that sleeps 7. Beth and I are in a private room with a bunk bed. They even had a washing machine. Feels like luxury.

Andy (UK) is one of the peregrinos here. He is mailing stuff back to lighten up his backpack.

We went back to the river cafe with Andy and end up meeting some Irish couples that were hysterical. Looking forward to another 20K walk.

The day after that we have to put our “big boy” pants on and do a 25.5 K walk in the heat. Ugh.

Bom Caminho