Portuguese Camino: Day 06 / Azinhaga to Asseiceira
Distance: 16.6 miles / Total 93.8 miles
Time: 7 hours 15 minutes
Ascent: 651’/ Decent: 430’
Weather: 81 degrees / overcast with one 30-minute light rain
Olive trees can be so broad they can’t be circled with your arms. The trunks are rough and gnarly. Hollow center trees thrive. Some aged trees look as if the tops have been completely severed; yet, new limbs miraculously sprout bringing life. Trunks and limbs are disproportionate. Olive trees simply defy death. Olives simply taste delicious.
Olive tree orchard. Broad trunks. Thin upper branches.
Today we purchased 1/4 pound of local olives for less than a dollar.
Surround sound of gunshots popping were heard as we trudge through enormously tall and endless fields of corn. In this maze of corn, only Duncan encounters two beagles and a hunter with rifle in hand. Hopefully it’s not open season for pilgrims.
Even Christian is dwarfed by the corn. CornButternut squash blossom.
Like thieves in the night, we are on the way under moonlight to avoid afternoon sun. GPS Camino Apps take away 95% of the stress from finding the route. It’s like being Hansel and Gretel following a trail of cookie crumbs. It’s being prepared for the 5% when devises fail that counts.
We are not the only early bird pilgrims. Moonlight gives way to sunlight. Glow from street lights. Captured by the sun.
To each their own. Some prefer cycling over walking. Some prefer telephoning over silence. But all prefer head-soaking from the city fountain on such a hot afternoon.
PelotonReach out and touch if you dare. Balancing walking the Camino and being a husband. With the greatest pleasure, I too soaked my entire head under the faucet.
Starting with the moon and Orion over head, we are able to walk a Herculean distance. Since Covid, there are fewer accommodations and those open are not always conveniently located.
Azambuja plaza. Sunrise. Always so quick. Morning crickets drown out the tap-tap of walk-in poles.