Camino Portuguese Day 2 Vila do Conde to Esposende
- Tim
- Sep 11
- 3 min read
This was a 17.1 mile day, way more than I expected. To make matters worse we had sustained 20 plus mph head wind with up to 40 mph gusts. It felt more like hurricanes fires winds. But I consider myself fortunate, because my hair still looked amazing 🤣
See for yourself
We walked through beach villages and it was all very cool. The terrain varied from concrete walkways, to wood or composite boardwalks, a few paved roads, and in Portugal you can't have a road with out cobblestones too.
It was also a very sunny day and the wind made you forget just how hot it was too. OMG that wind though, wow, there were a few times that I felt like I would be knocked over, or at least maybe if I had an umbrella I could fly away like Mary Poppins.
We walked on till almost 1 PM and stopped to have lunch. In Vila do Conde we picked up food from a grocery store. Some flat bread, salami and cheese to make a picnic lunch. There were tons of place on the first part of the trip but then things got a little scare as far as food goes, we had learned based on some research that we needed to plan ahead on how we would eat during the day. It's also at the tail end of the beach season and people vendors were closing up. Which also would make finding food more difficult. When we decided it was time to eat, obviously we were worried about just how windy it was and where the hell would we be able to eat. We made a short transition from the boardwalk to a cement access road that led to the beach. The access road, which was more like a boat ramp, but was WAY to far away to be used for boats. The point is, I saw a lady siting on the boat ramp far enough down that she was being sheltered from the wind. As my group made it across the cement road I looked back at the woman thinking she had the right idea. I didn't just think it, I said it out loud., and the lady looked up and she offered us a spot along her wall if we wanted to eat. Which of course we did.
The lady was German, at least from my basic, albeit ignorant guess based on her accent. Hell she could have been from Switzerland or Austria for all I knew. We referred to her as the lunch lady, as we setup "shop" the Lunch Lady left, and we pigged out on pita bread, salami, ham and cheese.
We also had a good view of the Atlantic Ocean and we took a few billion pics, with only 2 or 3 keepers. We sat there for an hour or so, trying to get feeling back in our feet, and I think I might have dozed off for a few minutes.
After our picnic lunch, we took off for Esposende. After about to first 10'ish miles I kind of full into a rhythm of just walking, breathing, and just attempting to put one foot in front of the other. That wind was intense, and the occasional wind blowing into your face was cray cray.
BUT most of the route was pretty flat so that was a total bonus. It took over 9 hours to complete the hike for the day. One of my travel companions is a bit challenged when it comes to maintaining a normal pace. By normal, I mean, keep one steady pace the whole time, and not fricking speed walk to look like you're a rock star, only to crash and burn like a rock star at the end, and add additional time to an already long ass walk. And NO I wasn't bitter about it at all. I'd like to say that I was less than enthusiastic with how this day went. I know you're now thinking, "OH Yeah I can ONLY imagine the ludicrous things Tim is saying" You would be right, just sort of assume it was worse than you think.
Until next time, stay out of trouble and if you can't do that. Don't get caught.
Tim
Camino Day 2
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