Esposende to Viana do Castela

I stayed out of the fast lane again and took the central route, slowly, rather than the Senda Litoral/seaside one. The road and then the woodland track out of the city was very distracting with invisible woodpeckers so I took a wrong turn. A farmer on a tractor who spoke French put me on the right one. I notice that the older folk tend to have French as a second language, the young ones all are fluent English speakers. Spanish doesn’t feature.

The main blip is stepping stone bridge over the river Neiva which when in spate requires a lengthy detour to a road bridge. The pilgrims are a jolly group from Wexford and I kept meeting them on and off all day.

By the time I’d reached Chafé at 16km my legs had caught up with my head and heart and I felt in good shape, a couple of climbs seemed to have have helped and given my legs a stretch using different muscles. I stopped with some of the Wexford folk for coffee and a croissant and made it into Viana sooner than expected. There was another long and high bridge to cross, I really don’t like these. This one was sturdier than yesterday’s however a railway bridge ran underneath which made it judder rather alarming when a train crossed.

I’m staying in what used to be a chocolate factory and the chocolate theme pervades the place, even the soap looks like a chocolate bar. I got a free tour of the chocolate museum and rather a lot of complementary chocolate - white, milk and dark to the extent that I don’t need to eat tonight.

One of the extras is a large lizard I spotted at least 30cm and a gorgeous green colour so vibrant that it stood out against the moss and grass, and the other I almost missed in the trees close to the Igreja Santiago de Castelo do Neiva and where I got my credential stamped.

I think I’m going to put the chocolate joss sticks on the sitooteri, they are rather overpowering.