Azambuja - Santarem 38.83km. October 4

Ardi -54033 steps 

Sid -44630 steps

26 degrees

Yet another ridicously long day....but a much nicer route.  We had mostly gravel path and  only 135 meters in evelvation, which doesn't sound like much, except it was the last 3 km! We did have a breeze for most of the day, and when we didn't have a breeze the pesky black flies were out in full force. We met a young Italian couple and a fellow (Toronto ) Canadian enroute.

Our path

We saw lots of agriculture....tomatoes ready for harvest

The main plant looks to be dried out ( or desiccated?)

Fields of corn

And a glimpse of the rio Tego

It seems very dry in this area...we walked through vineyards where what is left of the grapes are dried right out

That must be a very sad thing for Portugal I think?

Today our earthly angel came in the human form of Miguel.  He talked to us on the road and told us he had accommodations for us at our end destination, and he said he would bring us water in 1.5 hours. The last 14 km had no services.  So when we at about 9 km in we had no water left and guess who shows up?

That would be Miguel!

We are staying in one of his apartments and he is cooking us dinner and serving wine from the family winery 

The walk today did provide some oppportunity for reflection on the events in our lives in the past few weeks.  I love that about walking!

I would be kidding if I said we felt great.  We do feel pretty good but the days are just too long.  And I have come to learn the guide book is not always correct with distance.  24 km per day is perfect, 30 km is manageable ...anything past that you are asking for trouble.  We will see if we can reconfigure some of the routes.

This is our home for tonight