Day 3 – Esposende to Viana do Castelo – April 14, 2024
Today’s miles – 17.8 Total Miles – 54.5
I am outside the reaches of Porto now. Esposende has a great small town feel. There was a center of town (no plaza mayor) with shops and restaurants that was busy last night. This morning walking out of town we followed the river before getting back to the coast. Everything is clean and well maintained.
Once reaching the coast it wasn’t too long before the marked Camino headed inland. I decided to stay on the coast. Sure glad I had the app to help navigate. I followed the red line at times but often just used the map feature to find a way. I had walked a bit yesterday with a woman from New Zealand. This is her first leg of a 3 ½ moth world tour. Her husband didn’t want to walk, so he is visiting their son in India and will meet her at the end of her Camino. So many people have very interesting stories. Anyway, yesterday we had walked off the main route, which is my habit. So today she got to the intersection where the marked trail went inland and she called me asking where I was. The true coastal route was very confusing, so I gave her instructions and waited about 15 minutes for her to catch me. Much of the time we were literally on the beach. There was a swampy area to navigate and lots of dunes. We had to cross a river which meant going about a mile inland on all these various roads, thank god for the gps here. Then after the bridge crossing we wanted to get back to the coast. There were no roads but I found a red and yellow marked GR route (a European walking path) that was headed west toward the water. It was quite wet in places but eventually we ended up back on the beach. To get down we had to go down a steep 30’ embankment that we would not be able to get back up. We could see the beach and saw people north of where we were so it wasn’t a big deal.
We had to walk a mile inland to cross this river 
Getting back to the ocean 
The town in the distance was the destination for the night 
I took my shoes off to cross this stream 
My first animal sighting – sheep grazing. This was by the bridge crossing. 
Chicken and salad for lunch 
These flowers are everywhere along the coast 
The bridge into Viana do Castelo
As we got closer to Viana the beach got fairly busy. There were lots of kite surfers out today. We did have to cross a small river, so just took my sneakers off and walked through the frigid water. It felt great, so I just stood in the flowing water for a bit.
Today was an awesome day with all the beach walking. This is what I was expecting when I decided to walk this route. The map of what is to come looks great as well. Tomorrow I will take a ferry into Spain. This route is really set up for tourists but is fine for walkers. The lodging can be quite far apart. The cafes are locals with an occasional walker. I still have not met a fellow American, which is surprising.
Day 4 –Viana do Castelo to Vila Praia de Ancora – April 15, 2024
Today’s miles – 12.0 Total Miles – 66.5
Since I don’t have a schedule and my left big toe has been bothering me, I have decided to slow down a bit. The towns are quite far apart in this stretch. It makes it a bit difficult to plan. Today I walked 12 miles, there wasn’t a single village we walked through, so no services. There were towns about ½ mile off the path, but not worth going to. The next town north is 6 more miles, so 12 miles sounds great for today.
Today was not as adventurous as yesterday as there was a road or path to follow the entire day. There was quite a variety with concrete paths, wooden walkways, dirt road and even a short wooded walk on a dirt path.
The app I have been using shows a red line on a map which is convenient for navigating. It also has a list of towns along the way and what services are in those towns. Today I figured out the little number under the town is how far off the path the services are. So the first town I came to today had a 1200 under it. That meant it was 1,200 meters away, that is ¾ of a mile. I thought I would be walking through 2 towns today, but in reality, there was nothing along the actual path. I had 1 liter of water and some nuts for the 12 mile walk. I will pay more attention moving forward.
It was quite windy today. When we were along a sand beach, I would cover my face with my hat as the sand was blowing by.
Language is rarely a problem here as the locals in the service fields tend to at least speak some English. Being on the coast the towns tend to be tourism based. Since it is April the real tourism season has not started. Many of the beachside businesses haven’t even opened for the season.
Tomorrow is 6 miles to catch a ferry to Spain, then another 6 miles to my destination, A Guardia in Galicia, Spain. Spain is 1 hour ahead of Portugal.
What we find in a soul mate is not something to tame, but something wild to run with.
Robert Brault
Gary and Elizabeth's Adventures 