Day 19 – Ponte de Lima to Rubiaes – 26-May-2018

Another morning of rain greeted us, which provided some worries for us walkers. A fair amount of rain had fallen overnight – the trail today, according to our guide book, was going to be the toughest so far with a good 500 metre climb as well as fairly treacherous rocky paths. Just add water and you have a recipe for Camino disasters.

The albergue we stayed in offered us breakfast, so we took advantage of this. I was reflecting whilst having breakfast and how we take for granted certain things – a simple thing like having a cup of coffee; this morning we were able to have coffee with breakfast, normally a simple thing, but much appreciated today, as we would normally rush out and walk for an hour or two before being able to have a coffee.

Our shoes, which were soaked in yesterday’s rain, were relatively dry – an old trick of stuffing newspaper in them to draw out the moisture, had worked well.

Today, it was Jose and I walking to Rubiaes, as Eloisa was visiting friends in Viana Do Conde, on the coast, and Michael had decided to take some personal time to work some things out on his own.

By the time we left the albergue, the rain had stopped and there was even a hint of sunshine – something which pleased us considerably. The walk out of Ponte De Lima was easy and pleasant, as we walked through some of the old town again. It was good to see this in sunlight – last night, even though it was only drizzly, it was overcast and grey and not the best light for viewing such things.

Walking over the last few days has become a pleasure again – good tracks, very little in the way of actual roads and no traffic. The rain from yesterday had washed everything clean. The bush and forests we’re a lush verdant green. The tracks, even though still wet, were beginning to dry out and the sleepy mountain villages we walked through were showing some signs of awakening. It really was very pleasant to walk this morning.

We continued onwards and upwards until we reached the higher reaches of the hills that we needed to scale. At this point the trail became quite treacherous – steep, rocky, loose stones, slippery, and that was the good bits. We were however grateful that there was no rain, and that the limited sunshine had dried out the track to an extent.

The walk back down the mountain was not quite as tricky, but still required some degree of focus to avoid slipping and falling. We reached Rubiaes at around 12:30 – a walk of around 19kms and went to our albergue, but guess what, it was not open, so we found a local restaurant and had a hearty lunch.

The rest of the afternoon followed the usual pattern – check in, shower, rest, beer, Camino conversations etc.

To say that the town of Rubiaes is small is an understatement – very little here of note, so no exploring to be had today. About the only point of interest was the 12th century Romanesque Church which we passed on the way into the town.