Day 10 – Coimbra to Mealhada – 17-May-2018
As usual, we left the albergue at around sunrise. The way out afforded us an excellent view of the city at a lovely time of day; the sun was just rising, coloring the sky a pastel pink and orange. The dawn light brought the colors of the old white and sandstone buildings and the terracotta roofs were glowing (see photos).
The way out of the city was straightforward, but longish. It took us close to an hour to clear the outskirts of this city.
Unfortunately the major portion of the journey today was along roads of various grades, mostly village / town / agricultural roads, and even included some walking along a highway, which was not at all much fun. There was a tract of really good bush track, albeit all too short.
It was cool and pleasant when we left at 6:15, but by 10:30 the temperature certainly had climbed.
There was little shade along the way, and the sun beat down on us, feeling like it was baking us.
It was not a pleasant walk all up today, due to the road conditions and heat; suffice to say that we reached our albergue (Residencial Hilario) at around 2:30, after a fairly lavish but inexpensive lunch in Mealhada itself.
Today was a good day to catch up on washing, blogging and other general housekeeping tasks.
Tonight we’re back with the old gang and maybe some new friends who have also rocked up to this albergue. These people have just ‘magically’ appeared from Somewhere, but we do not know where as yet. That’s one of the interesting facets of a Camino – that people come into your view, stay for a few days, and then disappear from your view just a they came; your only hope is that you join up again somewhere down the track.