Day 4 - To Santarem

Today’s walk was planned to be from Azumbuja to Ponte de Mugue but it ended up being rather further than planned. You’ll see why later.

We had a very good night in our hotel in Azumbuja. Our meal last night with Stuart was very enjoyable with the man running the restaurant proving to be rather a comic and kept us amused. We finished fairly early and said our goodbyes, again, to Stuart as he was planning to be off very early in the morning for a long day’s walk. I completed my blog posting, still no advance on the photo uploading problem, and we went to bed. I had the best night’s sleep yet of the trip, and we both awoke bright and refreshed, ready for a reasonably short day’s walk. The cost of the hotel included breakfast so we went down to the restaurant. We’d been there about 10 minutes when Stuart walked in looking rather flustered. He’d slept in and was now behind his schedule. He grabbed some food including some for later and was soon off on his long walk.

We soon followed him, but at a slower pace than he walks. We were soon out in very flat but very pleasing countryside in slightly overcast but warm conditions. It soon got too warm for our fleeces so these came off, followed shortly by the legs of our convertible trousers. Our initial route was along a very quiet road but we soon left it and started walking along good quality farm roads. This continued for several miles and it was great to be away from the busy traffic of yesterday. It was very much like the Camino walking we had enjoyed in Spain previously.  Strangely, although we didn't walk through any villages we did pass two small private airfields, both of which had small aircraft flying in and out.

In England you see sSeagulls following the plough,

here they get Egrets

Eventually, as we drew nearer to the River Tajo we started meeting a few houses and were back on very quiet rural roads, but nothing much. Gradually however we realised that we were being passed by more and more cyclists. Initially it was the of one or two, then slightly more until eventually groups of 15 to 20 passed us. They were not racing, but were all going in the same direction as us. We eventually saw one young woman with a shirt that lead us to believe that they may all be cycling to Fatima.

They were a happy lot, and many shouted to us, in English, as they passed us.

Eventually we arrived at the village where we planned to stay for the night. There are two places listed and one gets very good reviews, which is where we planned staying. However when we arrived it was all closed-up.  OK then. Let’s go to the other. That was all closed up as well. What now? The next stretch of the route has nothing at all for well over 15km. That was too far for us to walk, being realistic. So, move over to plan B, resort to public transport.

There is a railway station in the next village, but enquiring about train times from the locals made us believe that the bus was a better bet, and a man we met in the bar insisted that he would take us in his car to the next village to catch the bus from there to Santarem. We couldn’t persuade him otherwise, So, off we set. We were soon at the local bus station, such as it was, and dropped off with many thanks from us.  However when we looked at the timetable we found that what was a half hourly service during the week only ran about every two hours at the weekend, and we’d just missed one. So, rather than wait another two hours we walked into the town centre and found a taxi that took us directly into Santarem. We soon found a good hostel and booked ourselves  in.

Just as we were completing the paperwork who walked up the stairs? Stuart of course. His face was a picture. He thought, as we did, that by now he would be well in front of us along the route. He couldn’t understand how we had overtaken him, so we had to confess and explain.

We are sleeping in a dormitory tonight, the first time on this trip so far. There are 8 bunks in the room but it looks as if we will be on our own.  Stuart has previously booked a private room. To complete the conversion into full Camino modes we have  just made our own meal rather than eating out. We’ve also taken the opportunity of confirming our accommodation for the next 3 nights.