Almodôvar.

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 lonely oaks went on forever and I had to thumb a lift to Almodôvar. Even though I almost walked all the way. But five kilometres is too far. Now I nuzzle three small snack items and another Super Bock Stout. I am exhausted ...

***

Three days away from civilization, and not another damp €50(I hope), and I was being talked to by the proprietor's husband, who said if I walked passed his farm I didn't walk the Caminho... No I didn't go through the final village as I was registering zero on the pilgrimage meter so it was straight ahead. Now, usually for me, I am doing tomorrow early! A visit to the toilet? I guess I walked a lot and used all the calories I could from a breakfast snack, a flask of lemon and orange water and that lovely lamb and potato dish which sent me out of Algarve and into Alentejo with a flea in my ear? Added to it the previous two nights without the warmth or comfort of a hostel, hostal, hotel, etc., and I am turning in once more at around 6pm The b&b is true! I have a voucher for the café opposite the Mercado so sleep it is, after a long deep cleansing shower? Tomorrow Castro Verde?

***

Suddenly I am awake. It's 6am. Slept almost 12 hours... There is someone in the hallway... Shit I left the keys in the lock on the way in ... Must've been crap for him to get in as I was snoring my evening away?

***

Let it go. Let everything go. That's the plan for day 5. Stop worrying what's ahead to be judged wanting... The persistent voice of doubt against what I do. Asking me the reason when there isn't one. Or if there is it doesn't matter? A gentleman from a geological survey who was also eating in Ameixial asked me so many questions - distance, time it took, etc, where are you staying... I don't know. I guess they get confused? And then their questions also confuse me. So that even in the flow of yesterday: coming to the river crossing, the questions returned and I could cry at the voices to leave me alone?

Made lemon water and doing my ablutions and then it's breakfast around the corner, and off the N2 which goes through the town. There was evidence of a mining past on the roundabouts coming into the white town. And I think they're still operational?

Repositioned to the cafeteria around the corner at a fairly tardy 6:30....I think I needed the sleep. In my dream I was holding on to something which I needed to let go... And I think I finally did. I was holding on to it as a remnant even if it was painful. It's a busy place Pastelaria Primavera. Is the Camino the thing I am holding onto which I need to let go or is it the past? I will contemplate today on the meaning of it. Examine it. Life? Quite tired today today? Lemon water will remedy the problem... It's Friday! Let's be happy.