This is my second report from my autumn-fall Camino Portugués. It is kinda’ strange, I thought I would be beaming with health after all that walking, but I have had a series of colds and cold sores, and my fingernails keep splitting. I think I have depleted my poor body. So sorry, body-dear! Doing my best to restore you with all those Christmas goodies.
One of my Camino wisdoms (!) is that the walking is simple – it is all the organizing and managing of food, accommodation, and finding the way that is complicated. Walking from Lisbon, there were no available albergues-hostels. We needed to find a pension, a room or a hotel. When you are walking, there is less flexibility about just driving around to find somewhere. By the end of the day, you really need to know there is a refuge for you, to take off your pack and your boots and a shower! This meant booking at least a day ahead. I would prefer not to have to, I would love to just turn up like a true pilgrim. I am not talking about the services that book your whole tour and deliver your bag for you. That is a pilgrimage of a very different nature and must make life more reassuring. We however, were of the adventurous breed and believed in the traditional Camino experience and routine.
Our first challenge was very much of this day and age, with no tradition to it! It involved phones. We had e-Sims for our Canadian phones, but we could not make calls or receive texts. So, how to phone locally for a room? We realized on the night before we left Lisbon that we would need a phone for local calls. What would that be? Is that what they call a burner phone? We went to a store and the young men from the Indian sub-continent did their best. We should have asked for a ‘pay as you go’ phone. We were complete newbies. But we bought one, at a great price, a sort of under-the-counter transaction – with a chip for a month’s worth of calls. And when you get the next month’s, you get a new number. So this is how it becomes a burner with an anonymous phone number. Now I had to go on a pilgrimage to learn this!
Luckily, most places did not ask for a deposit on a credit card; because of the no-text message situation, we could not receive those verification codes from the bank! I am sure there are ways around all this, but we were doing our best and struggling too. And thank goodness for WhatsApp. It can even translate messages back and forth.
Refreshments: I loved our morning coffee stops. It is very rare you don’t get an excellent coffee in Portugal. Pastries, yes, please. Lunch could be a bit more of a challenge; some of the best were in truck stops. Everyone was gracious and no-fuss welcoming. Just a couple of old ladies needing food. A genuine smile and true gratitude go a long way. However, there were a few stretches on that trail that were barren when it came to water-holes and in the second half of September it was hot. And this brings me to our Aerodromo adventures.
After we had been dragging along over open bare fields where industrial harvesting (mostly tomatoes) had been going on; we were really really in need of a place to sit in the shade and have a cold drink. Then along the trail, there was a small aerodrome. I said ‘I bet they have a club house or something.’ So we went up that private drive. And indeed, there was a facility and they were all setup for a posh lunch (white table cloths, little model planes on the tables ) for some posh visitors. They did not want dusty, tatty pilgrims spoiling their staging! But bless them, they set us up outside in the shade, each with a can of the most delicious cold Fanta possible! Well, what do you know, the next afternoon, equally parched and distressed, we passed another Aerodromo. My Camino companion just turned in there as though she was water-divining! Which, in a way she was! Well, this time we were met by a not-pleased older man who said this was a private facility. I stroked my throat and looked pathetic to show my dire need. And then a lovely young man came out and took over, there we were again, in the shade with this time a Pepsi. It turned out to be the headquarters for the ariel fire-fighters.The Bombaderos. So once we were out of our extreme thirst, we could discreetly admire all these lovely young fellows in their dungarees.
As we continue up the trail, more albergues became available. Some in lovely city houses, such as in Porto, that had been converted to a hostel. Hostels may not be as comfy, but you get the company of other pilgrims and also far easier to do your laundry. On the last part of the trail, where it gets quite busy, there is a whole new generation of modern hostels. You have your bunk, but it comes with a curtain and a plug in and your own light, and nice open common areas. More expensive but well worth it.
It was a joy to see that albergues are also housed in monasteries. The monks or nuns, who are thin on the ground these days, don’t run them. Others do, and the albergue will be on one floor of the monastery. With small rooms or dormitories. But there was space, long corridors of it. As I usually have to get up in the night, I would wander along these wonderful corridors, sometimes with dim light coming in from windows, sometimes with my tiny flash light, a gentle cooling breeze wafting around my night shift. It was really quite magical. I do rather like walking in the dark!