Arcade to Pontevedra

The three photos sum up a great mornings walk, we arrived at Pontevedra at 14.00 giving everyone the afternoon 'off' to rest, relax and enjoy the town.

Porrino to Arcade

The music ended at 03.00am so breakfast was a subdued affair as most people were a little tired!!! Today is probably the hardest day of the week as there are two climbs, nothing really terrible but as the day warmed up so did we. A stop at a local bakery showed me those with a really sweet tooth, I will mention no names except to say that Olga bought 4 cakes and ate all of them with coffee at a nearby cafe (see photo), the rest of the group were far more restrained. We reached Redondela at 15.00 where we cooled off with the local beer and water and ate homemade empanadas (savoury pies) before the final push to Arcade. I was proud of everyone today because with the heat it wasnt easy but no one complained (well not to my face!).

Tui to Porrino

The first day of the Camino and it is hot! After a magical morning through woodland we stop for lunch in the Centro Social de Ribeiradelouro - this was not our planned stop but it caught my eye as we were walking. Our luck was in! The centro is only open at weekends and only during Fiesta and our hosts Manuel and Marco (photo) were charmed personified: they insisted we try the local 'stew' with pigs ears and tripe and when they saw that we were not enamoured they bought us plates of a local sweet bread which was absolutley delicious and set us up with the local beer for the road ahead. The end of our walk today saw us arrive in Porrino and it is their local fiesta, the streets were decorated and even now as I write this at 22.45 the music is in full flow - it could be a long night....................................

Operating in a niche market as I do, travel companies from other countries often approach me about working together which in this business is common place. Now we have cycle and walking notes translated into both German and French and soon to be Spanish - this is where family co-operation comes into play. I have bilingual daughters who are helping me with this and I am very grateful to their help as they lead busy lives themselves working and looking after my grandchildren.
Tomorrow I am off to lead a group on our Camino Portugues to Santiago - as long as I can get internet access I will keep you up to date on progress!

Today saw the start of our Autumn walking programme in the Algarve with a good turn out of new and old faces. The weather was warm but comfortable and the only real problem was the amount of dust on the tracks which saw our lower legs turn a darker shade of brown, still nothing permanent and easily washed off. 3 years ago much of this walk was under water from torrential rain so we must count our blessings and there were plenty of smiles through out as the photo shows. It was really great to get going again.

Two weeks since my last post; the reason being I have been in the UK meeting travel companies that I work with plus other business dealings for 2010. For security I cannot blog about this until I am back in my house and back I am! My time away went very well and for something very different I drove back to the UK with a very dear friend and used the channel tunnel which was a first (very, very impressive). Back in Portugal the weather is still warm and next week we start our Autumn walking programme - my feet are itching to get going............