We’re early. We left Oxford on schedule at 11 o’clock courtesy of Menna and Andy. It’s always tough saying goodbye to the dogs. Pero in particular looked particularly woebegone. Taliesin was his usual noble self with barely a cursory glance in our direction as we left.

The driver was a decent guy, scanned our bus passes and took us cheerfully to High Wycombe before giving us tickets for the remainder of the journey to Gatwick, £70 instead of £90 so there is an occasional benefit to getting old 😊.

London suburbia isn’t terribly pleasant and with so much traffic forced off the M25, going was slower than Dorothy’s Camino walking pace. Thankfully after passing Hampton Court

we made better progress and joined the M25 at junction 10.

Our plane doesn’t leave until 18:15 and it’s now 14:31 so we’re too early to check in so we’re at the Nicholas Culpeper pub.

We ate here late one evening many years ago when everything else was closed, not our first choice but we can’t go any further into the depths of the north terminal until we’ve checked my bag in so needs must.

Two small glasses of Shiraz and a small vegan Cajun cauliflower dish should see us through until we can get something more substantial later.

Ah, We’ve got through security …

Time to get a decent meal in Sonoma which prides itself according to its blurb on its origins in Sonoma county in California. We’ve actually been there, we had some somewhat very expensive dodgy wine in one of their premier wineries, not even close to a good primitivo. Sonoma county was very pleasant, hot and somewhat arid but not quite what the blurb suggests.

The two vegan options were excellent though Dorothy’s squash and bean bowl proved a little heavy going. My enoki mushrooms and kimchi ramen was excellent. Having successfully grown grey oyster mushrooms

it’s time to branch out into enoki, king oyster and shimeji plus the more common chestnut variety.

Still, all has to wait until we’re home again.

It’s 22:15, London and indeed Porto time and we’ve arrived after a somewhat delayed but uneventful flight. Passports stamped appropriately (bloody Brexit) and bags quickly recovered we’re now peacefully ensconced in the Park hotel, which officially, is supposedly 300m from the airport. If I were a crow, 300m would be about right but I’m not and it isn’t. Airports are designed for cars, coaches and taxis. The practice of walking is clearly not at the forefront of mind of the person or persons who designed the layout around here. Consequently we’ve had to walk alongside the main road crossing and re-crossing it quickly several times. Still, we’re here and with the contents of the bags strewn across the floor in preparation for tomorrow, it’s time to sleep. Breakfast is available from 04:30 so an early start perhaps 🤔

Buen camino