We left the albergue in Ponte de Lima and headed out of town, through suburbs, forests, and under a highway. The scenery took a turn for the better as we found ourselves in gently shaded Eucalyptus forest and walking beside picturesque rivers, far from the roads and with only the sound of birdsong and the water flowing. It felt good to be finally on a really beautiful walk at one with nature once again!

About 9km in Anna and I stopped for a tosta misto (ham and cheese toastie – the tortilla of Portugal!) and a hot chocolate. It was sunny and hot but I just fancied something sweet. In hindsight the two are a terrible combination but I was tired and not thinking…. The little bar was in the village of Revolta and was small and humble with prices to match. 1E60 for a very good tosta! Then I was on my way again, listening to my Spanish lessons as I plodded along through more beautiful scenery.

Anna was well ahead of me and I had moved from Spanish to a very loud and happy Spotify mix on my headphones. I was aware of some muffled barking somewhere but paid it no heed till I came across a very nervous looking Anna sitting on a tree stump in the forest. Beside her was a large van with cages inside for hunting dogs and a large picture of a wild boar on the back… The barking we had heard was the excited pack out hunting their prey and along the forest road, every 100metres or so, was a hunter man sat waiting with a rifle in hand for the dogs to chase the boar down and out of the forest on to our path!!! Scary. I asked one of the armed men in my terrible Spanish whether we were okay to walk between the rifles and the hunt and he assured me he was aware I was around, I think….. However, my Spanish is pretty terrible and also he was Portuguese!! Soon we headed up in to the boar infested woods…

The path was rocky and steep but it felt good to be in the ‘real’ countryside and way from suburbs and villages and roads. We climbed higher and higher and were rewarded with magnificent views over the hills all around.

Gradually we descended along forest paths and out back in to countryside and hamlets, in to the village of Rubiaes. This village / hamlet is not much to write home about! There’s not a lot there.

The public albergue (Albergue Escola) is okay, but after a few days you start to get a bit fed up of them as they are all very similar. Old buildings, sometimes quite characterful, but with dull interiors and minimal, basic, functional furnishings. There is nothing pretty or frilly or warm or cosy about them. They are a little institution-y with their plastic coated mattresses and stark tiled facilities. The 3 noisy happy Portuguese pilgrims fromyesterday’s albergue were staying there and we bumped in to them at ‘the’ village bar on out way back from the supermarket (about 500metres away along the busy road.) We joined them for a wine and learned that the blokes are 2 cousins (mid fifties) called Alfonso and Adelino, and the woman is Adelino’s 26 year old daughter, Tanya. They are walking from Porto to Valenca so tomorrow will be their last day, and returning to complete their Camino in Spring. They had bought a huge bag of frozen seafood to make an arroz marinera and invited us to join so we trotted back to the supermarket to purchase a bottle of wine and a large vienetta to offer to the proceedings!

Walking back from the supermarket along the horrid, busy road we passed a very strange animal, unfortunately deceased at the side of the road. It was cat like in form but with a very narrow face, bushy tail and distinctive markings. Does anyone know what it is?

Then, as we neared the hostel, I nearly stepped on a teeny, tiny bird. He was obviously injured in some way and was in danger of being squashticated by a passing lorry so I scooped him up and took him back to the albergue. I knew he was unlikely to survive -the poor little fellow was trembling and cold and scared, but I popped him in a washing-up bowl with layers of fluffy toilet paper as a nest, a little water and couscous, and left him in the dark laundry room to give him a chance of recovery. He was so sweet and soft,poor little thing….

Adelino was the chef for the night. There was just one other guy staying at the albergue, a 75 year old serial camino-ist from Germany by the name of Wolfram. He was alone and so we swiftly invited him to join, also welcoming the young Brazilian hospitalero. A lovely meal was had with vino tinto and vienetta for desert, chocolates from Lucille, and truffles from Wolfram. Alfonso was loud and merry and kept everyone laughing throughout, he was a big guy with a big personality. A lovely, fun night at Albergue Rubiaes!