A rebel without a clue.

At Saõ Roque, in Póvoa de Varzim, with his loyal companion, is my saint of 'choice': at least he probably existed, is the only church I've set foot in so far on the journey. And to see him showing the same wound on his leg as Jesus's ... He wears the attributes of a pilgrim, with the scallop shell adornments, but was he a pilgrim? Today the only pilgrim I saw until Viana del Castelo was going to Fatima. He had a dog. It was in Esposende - perhaps he was Saint Roch? Seems ages ago since I left the coast for inland, and, after an enjoyable meander alongside the river, it's up through the eucalyptus tree plantation until, in some desperation and a little fatigued, I've stopped opposite Saõ Sebastião(Pão Quente) for lunch around one. Now it's a little over 8 Kms to finish the day? Chafé. As I run out of energy I do get stupidly hungry! Wednesday already: day 5. Yesterday I was 'seeing' very clearly for the first time, but this morning I a...

Last night I went to the sack early (just as the hostess was preparing ribs for supper (the divine smells of garlic wafting upstairs)) because I was feeling something in my head, nose and throat (and a slight ache in my bones), but I can't imagine where I have caught another ague from?!? Recently, on the Camino Frances, I had a wee sniffle - but there I was in mainly Municipal Albergues where there wasn't much separate between bodies... Something was going around, but it was'nee the Plague. ... Back in late February of 2020 I was heading out to the Jakobsweg between Fulda and Metz, just as COVID19 was rearing it's head. After flying late to Köln and then heading to Frankfurt on a packed Flixbus, where I had to share with some very unhealthy sounding people who were returning from a ski trip in Italy, my film maker friend Michael (The Walk) took me to Bad Vibel for a couple of nights. After I had set out from Fulda (3 days after the coach trip) I was already ...

The only pilgrim I saw today was on the opposite side of the track and heading to Fatima... Stopped for lunch, but my first objection is the music is all cover versions ... Just now Lithium ... It shouldn't be done. The soup was too salty so I worry about the fayre to come! And the faces of the other diners are well 'crispy' - I smiled loads but they di'nee - is this just Portugues? However the wine, Malvasia I feel, has that gentle salinity in that Vinho Verde fashion (with its subtle petilliance too) and was wonderful. But the best thing to about the current song is it is 'not' Guns and Roses ((a very overrated 'rock' band) and please give me AC/DC before Bon Scott's demise!)) and the cover version is more tolerable than the sickening original. And I am left wondering what makes the owner tick as it just makes me tick tick boom... The last few steps were fatigued indeed. So any port in a storm. Manjar de Praia: the olives are lovely, so is the brea...

Monday morning... And there is no feeling better than being heckled by someone in the Santiago group on FB? Of course it's fine... They don't actually know anything about the Camino if they thinks it's meant to be a smiley happy thing. I repeat it: it's never a smiley happy thing! But obviously it also a smiley happy thing! This morning the news is featuring on the snow in Northern Europe, slightly less stressful than Gaza or Ukraine! My mum sent me a photo of the snow: it made me laugh as it looked like pretend snow. Some places it must be more widespread? And obviously the kids are off school and out on their sledges and toboggans; constructing snow persons? I recall we used a black polythene bag if we were caught with snow and no sledge. Last night a thought came to me: walk to Valença and then back to Porto, via Braga... Am I really interested in reaching Santiago so soon after the previous visit? And now I have to return to Porto to get back for young A...

My meat free Sunday failed at breakfast, but lunch was so beyond meat it was going into ears and other parts seldom eaten: pigs tail. I've a solid mass of carne sat in my digestive juices as I sit opposite the Albergue de peregrinos São José de Ribamar pondering the Vinho Verde which is saline and about to assist with the meat load overdose: in badly translated English it was either 1/2 dose or 1 dose of roasted meats. I went for half a 'dose' and it has brought my mortality closer or set me back years in purgatory? Unusual for me but I have a calf strain on my right one. It was obvious coming from Vila do Conde into Póvoa de Varzim. I believe I got it after the decking petered put, back in amongst those cobbles. I can't just walk ahead as every step the angle changes and it's so easy to misstep! But all is good. The restaurant opposite the albergue is calm. Póvoa de Varzim is quite large. From some distance away I thought it was too far for today, but ...

The end of day one and I am in a cabin on the campsite, here in Angeiras (Camping Orbitur - Angeiras 18€), which is for the third time on some part of the coastal Caminho - which I have followed since leaving Lisbon in 2021; and so It's another silence I have to myself beneath the pines. Another December too. I just know the weather of today won't last, as it didn't before I was semi stranded in Óbidos for three days during a deluge and curfew, but the weather broke then too as I arrived to Figueira do Foz on a glorious evening (when I'd walked for ever; for ever without respite passed the huge Aviator paper facility). It isn't 2021 though, is it??? Caldo for soup. Fine. Lovely bread (Restaurante Lima)! If this was from the bakery, which opens at 6:30am, all will be good. Tomorrow I've to switch to modo peregrinos from the 'semi-pilgrim/semi-tourist' mode I simply had to be in since walking out of Porto along the estuary to that gorgeous, but...

Like that morning back in 2021(when I left 'Se' in Lisboa to go to the mouth of the Targa) I am following the mouth of the Douro out of Porto along the Camino Portugués de la Costa, but I've downed tools for Ovos Benedict and a cup of white tea from the Azores. Where am I going today? I simply don't know. Yes I've seen two other pilgrims on this way, but one was catching a bus and the other just said I am going that way; let it be? Walking on the cobbles is a little difficult. I forgot about cobbles. You've got to watch your step?