A rebel without a clue.

Saturday. Awake at 5:45am. Let Ruby outside. Made a cafetiere of coffee. Letting it brew. Cuddled Ruby and watched her relax and rebuild her bed besides me on her sofa in the kitchen dining room. Podcast time. But I am finding them tedious now...  Lesson of the day: no 27 Above all else I want to see. Time to clear away last night's washing up. Full moon. Running a bath... Sorted out the box fresh boots I collected yesterday afternoon. Eating breakfast. 7:35. Avocado on brown. Cup of lemon verbena 9:30 walking across Crowcroft Bank with Lola and Ruby... A 'good' hour. Back alongside the A1 to the underpass at Freeman's Way Beans on toast and then an hour meditation. Took Ruby back to 14  Chestnut Avenue and heading to the allotment for a couple of hours Did a lot of digging and covered up the sections. Walking Ruby into town for a couple of jars. Things are a growing... Exhausted. Ruby too. Dinner and then bed. Tomorrow is Sunday. She signs. *** Sunday. Ruby barks at 5a...

It's just Ruby and me and the wind. A gale was blowing outside and scattering rain against the wall of the bedroom I was trying to sleep in... She barked at something around midnight and again around 5 and asked to go out for toilet, but now she's back asleep on the other sofa. It's early. Yesterday we went to Harrogate and walked through a very muddy Yorkshire Show Ground and Hornbeam Park to the Stray and finished up at Harlow Hill before heading through Valley Gardens and then back to Chestnut Avenue by 13:40 for lunch and siesta. A giant of a beech tree had collapsed in the storm down across the stream which feeds into the Crimple Beck. I've Lola to collect and take out with Ruby after sunrise. Perhaps I can get to the allotment this afternoon as I am sure Ruby will be easy today after yesterday's long one? Combination of things. It's a lovely morning, but am exhausted. Dropped Lola off, had a 15 cuddle as she descended into snooze. No onion sets at Touchwoo...

Made coffee, listened to a podcast, ran a bath, did a woollen wash, walked the long way to catch the bus, via Sainsbury's for two bananas and a bottle of kefir (need it after the beer in Meanwood Friday afternoon), sat on the X99 and read a chapter of Nomad Century ... Walking to mum's to take merry legs for a walk. Chilling out with her today? Allotment tomorrow if the storm blows passed by then? Nice walk along the riverside with a very excited Lola: sand! She was spinning and nipping my wrists - signs she's super happy. Tried to unwind next to her after elevensies, but at the moment we can't switch off next to one another - she prefers to chill on her own on the sofa or armchair now anyway (bless)! Allotment this afternoon. Just walked into town to see Jason for a couple of beers. Too many yesterday so only two. Not seen Jason since November. Had a coffee at the cinema (Darkwoods) with a biscotti. A couple became 3. Jason hurried off his final one to meet Katherine i...

Oranges are not the only fruit, but when one falls from the tree directly in front of me, cracks itself open and tastes so luxurious just as the Igreja struck oito , why shouldn't they be? Coming to the first village I was hopeful of a true coffee. 10am and the taberna was just opening. Three welcoming dogs, one mumbling patron and one happier peregrino I carry on to what maybe was an old monastery on the crest of hill ... Aldeia dos Elvas. This morning I've eaten the remainder of the Portuguese Christmas cake ( bolo Rei) which I purchased in Almodôvar for 5€. Full of nuts, fruit and other goodies ... It's keeping me going! Away to my right a bull roars, bellowing with all its larynx can bear, and it's the warmest morning so far on this el Camino... Although I have been on my own for seven solid days walking, and only had locals as background noise, the voices from the past still manage to stir up a hornets hive so that a beautifully sunny morning has be...

So far so good. At the crossroads I get a beer as the gentlemen and women of the village bring a giant of a pig to the conclusion of its life. It's a communal project. I've two more biscuits down until the next village after Almeirim in a couple more hours. The butcher sharpens his knives as the set about the carcass. It's Sagres cerveja. I can't escape a beer ... At 10:30am this Saturday morning. These plains remind me of Meseta and how lonely I get walking through grasslands. To break up the monotony there are millions of caterpillars coming out of their winter cocoons and solitary slugs looking to pair up, if they don't get run over by the very occasional farm vehicle passing along to the field or back again. Those hills north of Faro are memories now! Lunch time is hopefully ahead in Casével: but I refused the pork sandwich I was offered back at the carcass crossroads because I really need a meat free day today... Is it possible? The non-white church tower signa...

Things which happen on the way... Sour faces in O Rosário Café. Such mean visage and I couldn't walk on! *** I struggled a lot this morning. For some reason I am feeling broken ... weary five days in on the Way... But this evening! I am in a bungalow on the campsite at the edge of town. I followed my fortune (€30 Parque de Campismo). Sorry I hitched half way, but there was no place to eat at all in Rosário. And the old war wound(left foot) is playing up - because it was straight ahead along farm tracks with no variation. Nothing feels quite right even though I slept pretty well. Now I seek a beer in the sun and another early evening? Guilt! 18 kilometres from breakfast until all was done, but now its nectar! It is Vinho, but I am tired. It's a shame I had to complain about two glasses of wine before I realised then it was the glassware (going back in time to the wine geek me) I am wino and am I walking tomorrow? So two fantastic pies and I think the fourth wine is also sufferin...

Made a growling dog happy, and a bonafide companion (before I shoo-ed him back), with a little tenderness behind the ears. An older boy guarding the crossroads out of Ameixial: he kept a dangerous looking black dog away with another low rumble of discontent! Am now walking towards the midway break at Santa Cruz, perched on the other side of a valley in Alentejo. Crossing the Vascão at the mill I left the Algarve. It's my forth day today so I am nearly over the peak of the expected seven days. Amongst the scrub and pasture I hear the plaintive cries of ewe and lamb in a distinctly different environment with all its cork oak and lichen. No arbutus, carob, prickly pear, oranges, lemons or limes today; and definitely no Myrtle... *** Café a Colmeia do Vicente and it's the only place before Almodôvar so I must eat here, but do I stop here? If it's more of the rolling hills on the borderlands? Loan, the young Doberman, was fun to be around! *** Those lonel...

Dogs, bees, brooks and flora. Butterflies alight and bees swarm over nectar rich veins and dogs bay for the iron running deep into my being. Cockerel not on the table cries over sacrificed fowl. And I am onwards. *** Was that a Dutch fight? Two Dutch who didn't like each other, but I might've misunderstood. The femme told me not to eat his left overs (but I couldn't help it as I didn't want to waste any of the wonderful food) and he was digging at her once she left the other table. Antagonism, but probably bedfellows. I didn't mind him giving me his creme caramel, but touching my leg was a Dutch too far. Now I am horizontal, again, in the albergue in Ameixial: apparently there is a four day walking event in March so it has a purpose built Albergue, but the three mulheres I thought were taking me to the edge of town to strip me of what little mantle I have left! But it wasn't to be... C'est la vie? That was a long day. But by 2pm I was wolfing down another Ga...

A quarter to six awake. Not the warmest night's sleep, but I wasn't uncomfortable. Shame about the exit light always on: but it's a retirement home so it's compulsory and I used a snood scarf as a blindfold. No alcohol sloshing around my insides. Retired around 6pm and was out like a light until someone decided to buzz the outside gate. Then I struggled with the several layers of bedding to keep the cold out and my body warm as I crept towards wakefulness... As the sun went below the horizon the sky lit up with a good omen? Red sky at night... I think I'd prefer a difficult day with the sun for company... Rain is too much already! Opção for 2 * coffee and cheese and ham toastie... I simply had to have something warm on this chilly morning, and they won't do OVO... Why won't they do eggs? So a tortilla for lunch? And some fruit ... Not quite there so to the top of town for one more coffee, a bolo de Arroz   apples and bolinho de almond...

It's a simple village. Where simplicity is the order of the hour. Like yesterday I did a circuit of the centre, around the ruined castle, now I sit opposite the Associação Cultural de Salir with obligatory 20cl Super Bock Stout. The sun is shining... and I am sleeping in an old folks home this evening! *** And what a day. Fim meio-dia and exhausted. Salir. Staying in an old folks home, gratis! I am on the trail of a true Caminho and two days out of Faro it exists: so now it's forward into the unknown? Not east or west, but straight ahead for another 5 days... It was very wet mid morning and the future depends on getting off to the correct start tomorrow! The chef in Porto Doce is French. Galo Portuguese/Gallo French. Coq-au-Vin is French... La vin is Portuguese - I didn't ask? Fried bread is clever? Especially if the bread is local? Waste not want not. I asked for piri-piri because I thought he'd not do the meal justice, and I love piri-piri, but...

Faro. Phew. A good night's sleep in a Hostel. Only one other guest in my room Brian from the UK, who is escaping the cost of England; why else would you come to Faro? Perhaps for the climate, obviously, and to chill the fuck out? That's why I am here. I was last in Portugal just prior to dog sitting Archie in December, and had a few days of nice walking along that Caminho Portugues route out of Porto, but I had a very tight budget, and quickly ran out of money, and the weather desolved into awful. Five days. This time I am hoping for 7 days prior to heading back to the flat in Leeds to have this new heating and water system installed by the contractors to Leeds City Council. Then I've Ruby again before Glenn and I go to Grenoble, and surroundings... *** Day One yawns into being. As the first plane screams overhead @ 6:30am. The man, Brian, sleeps with a light on. And has sleep apnea... I thought he was choking a couple of times. What with the night guy cleaning the corridor...