Day 3: Esposende to Viana do Castelo

 So another wet day! 

It started out well with clear blue skies but the forecast was for rain. We grabbed some breakfast in a local cafe and left Esposende at 8.10 heading north again along the river and then the coast but very quickly headed in land. 


Leaving Esposende

Esposende light house and old fortress 

Spotted a rainbow. Not a good sign!

Lots of cobblestone narrow lanes going on for km after km before we eventually left the urban area and entered the country side. 

This Old Ford Sierra was in great condition, 
you don’t see many of these about anymore
 but my dad had one. 

When we left the country side we were again in farm land but entered a forest where the path was a mixture of rocks and tree roots and went along side quite a big river then we started to climb some big hill. 

After 12km we deviated off the Camino to a cafe for lunch and coffee. We met another couple there from Northern Ireland.  Before heading off we checked the radar and unfortunately we were about to get hit by a thunder storm and some heavy rain. We got absolutely soaked, coat, shorts, backpack and shoes, but coat and shoes inside was mostly dry. After the rain stopped we entered a small town of  Anha and stopped for coffee, being Friday afternoon a lot of the bars were full of locals. Another rainstorm came through but we sat this one out for about 20 minutes. There was another 6km to go. 

We had  another big climb and once we crested the hill we could see our destination from the top. Across the valley was a large hill and on top of it was a large church where our Alberge was. 

The view from the top of Viana do Castielio. 

The yellow arrow is where we stayed the night

  So descended the hill and then had to cross a very long narrow road bridge where the walkway was only 1 person wide and very close to the traffic and so passing  oncoming pedestrians you had to be careful. The other challenge was a train passed underneath on the lower deck which made the bridge shake. The bridge must have been a mile long. 

We arrived in Viana do Castelio at about 14.45. We took a while to find a restaurant to get food then head to a grocery store to buy a bottle of wine and some snacks. Then headed up the mountain in a vernacular railway for €2 to take us to the top of the hill and accommodation. It had started to rain again and got soaked again in the 5 minutes it took to get from the train to the Alberge. 





Today: 27.07km (16.8M)

CdP Total: 75.25km (46.7M)

Remaining CdP: 195km (121M)

Remaining CdP+CdF: 287km (178M)

Comments

  1. conor doherty11 October 2024 at 14:39

    Getting the miles and the beers in! How many days to Santiago?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Damian 15 October 2024 at 12:19

    Conor good point I’ll add days remain to daily stats.

    ReplyDelete

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