We’re in the throes of a political discussion with Andy, a really decent Scottish chap and his gentle wife Michelle who I last mentioned in the blog on the Camino Frances when they headed back along the path in the middle of a thunderstorm in search of Andy’s missing beret. Incredibly, a kind lady had been waiting in anticipation of Andy returning for his beret and handed it to him as he arrived back in town. The kindness of strangers is a real phenomenon on the Camino.

We’re making our way through Brexit, Labour Party politics, whether Farage’s head should be on a spike outside the Tower of London (of course it should) and the rise of populist politicians generally. I’m thoroughly enjoying myself 😊. Andy’s politics are remarkably well aligned with mine, clearly he’s highly intelligent and well read ☺️.

But, this blog should be free of such low concerns and should concentrate on the higher aspects of human experience. With that in mind, let’s review today’s little 31km jaunt.

We kicked off at 7:30 (6:30 Portuguese time). Tom had decided to take a taxi half way and to continue from there. That left Juanita, Dorothy and I to plod quietly along Tui’s empty streets as the sun rose in the west.

We took advantage of the detour suggested by the Camino surveyors and found ourselves walking through a peaceful forest of oak, beech and the ubiquitous eucalyptus trees.

We came across this contraption – my suspicion is that it’s some sort of analysis kit for pollution monitoring perhaps. Any ideas?

We passed over an ancient bridge

an interesting sculpture

and shortly afterwards this ‘art installation’.

Pretty much every dwelling and village has brassicas and vines occupying some small area of land

but we were somewhat surprised to see this character along the route.

Tom had been ahead of us throughout the day and we had no real idea of where he was so there was some concern when we spotted this chap lying in the field.

As it turned out, this wasn’t Tom. At the time this photo was taken he was ensconced in a bar on the outskirts of Redondela drinking what he thought was his second strong beer of the day but which turned out to be alcohol free as noted by Dorothy.

We’d covered the best part of 16km by lunchtime and indeed the nearly 32km today passed surprisingly quickly.

I’ve been really impressed by the way in which the vines have been trained so as to form a covering alongside most plots of land.

It would be really interesting to come back in the Autumn when I’m sure that the relative starkness of the structures as we see them now would be plump with grapes and thick with foliage.

There have been some wonderfully coloured butterflies and some gorgeous flowers en route.

As we arrived in Redondela we came across a tiny plot of land next to the main road which housed a small flock of chickens despondently pecking at the bare earth.

It’s quite remarkable how it’s possible to make use of such meagre resources.

One of the most interesting aspects of all of our Caminos through Spain and now Portugal is the use of pretty much every possible piece of land to either grow something or provide an area for some creature, horse, donkey, cow, goat, chicken, goose, turkey, duck or emu (remember the emu?) to find food. Perhaps it’s time to start beekeeping again. We’ve got the chickens but maybe a duck or two? The running ducks are delightful 🙂

I’ll finish with photographs of two remarkably fit and determined ladies.

Buen Camino