5th Day: From Viana do Castello to Caminha

After a good night's sleep, I felt refreshed from yesterday's exertions!

"I definitely won't be walking 30 kilometers tomorrow," I told Anna yesterday. I should have been right: it was 40 km! 🤦🏼‍♂️

How did that happen, even though Caminha was only supposed to be 25 km away?

In my 'defense', I have to say that the route app didn't know exactly what it wanted today. Just like me.

I realized early on that today I wasn't as focused on walking and let myself be distracted by little things. A beautiful butterfly? Oh, I have to take a photo of it. Seagulls flying in large numbers? Record it! In between, I built a stone tower by the roadside, as is customary and can be seen from time to time. I also had to document the crystal-clear water. For that, I walked for a total of an hour today directly in the sand by the water. At one point, I found a stone in a beautiful color and when I wanted to put it in my pocket, I heard that voice again from two days ago: "Dude, are you serious? Another one??" It seemed to be coming either from my back or my feet.

I reassured it that this would be the last one and that I would carry it in my pants pocket for now! 😄

When I saw a nice spot where the water was standing and where you could sit and cool your feet, I had to have lunch.

I sat on the rocks, took off my shoes and socks, and dipped my feet in the cold water.

They were happy because they had been a little battered from yesterday.

There was fruit, cookies, and the bread I had made at breakfast to eat.

I wanted to pack it in the morning, but then the waiter told me that it wasn't allowed.

I waited for a favorable moment and then went with the bread after all! 😈 Let the hotel sue me! 🤷🏼‍♂️

After sitting there for 30 minutes, Mother Nature seemed to have had enough and showed me by suddenly splashing a wave that I should continue walking.

Great, now I had a wet butt and a soaking wet towel.

The path was often interrupted and unfortunately, I frequently managed to take detours that turned out to be detours in the end.

In addition, there was again no restroom for over 1.5 hours, so my water supply was running out.

At one point, I was even tempted to drink from a creek that seemed to have clear water. But since I didn't want to spend tomorrow on the toilet, I refrained from doing so. When I finally arrived at a campsite, I restocked on drinks.

When the jetty ended again, I decided to walk on the sand by the water. It was only later that I realized that it seemed to be a nude beach. That, however, was not the reason why I suddenly had a wet foot. I had been looking at the previous pictures on my phone and once again, an unexpectedly large wave had splashed onto the shore.

After 10(!) hours and 40 km, I finally arrived at the Pension Litos AL, even though I had sometimes walked on a freeway that could not possibly be part of the Camino de Santiago.

If the police had picked me up, I would have asked them to drive me the 5 km to Caminha.

I was on the verge of hitchhiking. I was mentally exhausted by now. It seemed like there was no progress at all.

The accommodation was not as good as the previous ones, but clean and with its own shower. For €36, including breakfast, it was okay, even though a train passes nearby regularly.

I rubbed my tired legs and my neck/shoulders (from the backpack) with horse ointment and hoped that my body would recover during the night. A look in the mirror told me that I had burned my face. 😡