Come wind, come weather

CAMINO PORTUGUES Day 9

I don't know where to begin describing this extraordinary day...

So I shall start at 7am when I got out of a very creaky bed and stood on my two very creaky feet. Last night's escapade (in flip flops) had left me with my first blisters of the trip, sobi was grateful to Hazel and Joanna for their gifts of Compeed, which I applied before we left to walk another 13 miles to Tomar.

There was a change of scenery today as we left the Tejo behind and started climbing up through hilly eucalyptus forest to Grou. A gentle cooling rain was falling, which made walking very pleasant. I think this was my favourite part so far.

We had thought earlier that if our feet were very sore, we might take a train for the final few km, but in the end we just walked it all. There was a horrid bit near the end where we had to walk along a fast road (see extra) but generally it was OK. We even met another pilgrim near Tomar - Claude from France, who spoke no English. We had to switch to creaky French.

After a lovely BATH at the hostel, we headed out again. We couldn't come to Tomar without walking up to the Convent of Christ, a former Templar stronghold. Its a World Heritage site and rightly so. Totally A-mazing.

Then it began to rain. Not just ordinary rain, but monsoon rain. The stome gargoyles were pouring out water. And it just didn't stop. We waited as lo g as we could but at closing time I asked the lady in the shop if she could please call us a taxi and we careered down the crazy narrow cobbled streets and back to the hostel.

Tonight after a bit of searching, we finally found a restaurant that was open. It was well worth it :-)

I have spent some time booking our accommodation for the next week ahead as occupancy is only 50% because of Covid, so places are at a premium.

Time for bed now!