So nice to wake up in a place you know you’ll be staying later…. Christmas Tree hostel we love you!! We set off, this time actually headed for the red and white markings that would would lead us safely on our route, past cute goats…. 

The walk was gentle, meandering, through eucalyptus forests, fields of cactii and hills that required little effort. The sun shone bright but the rain of the past few days left the odd stream swollen and tricky to navigate. 

A gentle stroll through the solitary wilderness with not a soul in sight. Until…. we saw another walker! In the distance! A lone figure headed toward us, the tell-tale sign of a rucksack on his back, – a fellow hiker! Yay!!!!! I turned my headphones to silent, he took his headphones off, we both said ‘hi’ and he was gone. Jolien later told a similar story. We were excited to see a friend but we have been in isolation so long that we no longer know how to communicate with another human being, even of hiker variety. Anyway, our imaginations led us both to conclude that his name was probably Mark, or maybe Anthony, and he would have been really nice to get to know, for a while, but slightly dull (we had caught a really good glimpse of his face) and after some time we would have got fed up with his mild-mannered ways, hearing about his degree in environmental studies and how his lovely girlfriend Libby was happy for him to take a few weeks out to walk…. A narrow escape! We continued on happy together….

The gentle but gorgeous walk gradually led us to the river and the now familiar Odemira, home of Lydia! I checked out the Chinese shop whilst Jolien headed up hill to order two beers. There were no cheap plastic light weight clogs in my size (I was trying to prepare for future rain and not have to cellophane my feet again) I bought Jolien a beautiful 1 euro flower hair clip and trotted up to join her.

Well earned beers in the sun followed, then a hitch home to the Christmas Tree Hostel, with a friendly young Portuguese couple. We ate left over curry with poppadoms picked up en route, fried bananas and the rest of the movie from yesterday, tired, satisfied and happy.