As a result of a comment from June and Newton I have added a new Widget at the left hand side of the page.
If you enter your email into the "Follow by email" panel, a notification of any new blogs will be sent automatically to the address you give, and confirm later.
Hopefully this will make it easier for you to follow us and our ramblings, both physical and mental.
Tony
Thursday 14 April 2016
Day 9 - To Alvaiazere
We enjoyed our, so called, rest day in Tomar. With all the walking up to the castle and back and various other side trips around the town we clocked up about 8km to add to our total.
As I mentioned yesterday, we started from Tomar this morning by traveling out by bus to Tojal. When we left the hotel the weather was rather overcast and didn't look promising. Sure enough, as we were on the bus, just leaving Tomar it started to rain. And that sums up most of today.
It rained! Then it rained some more. Then it rained harder. And it carried on raining even more
The whole of our walking today was in heavy rain. The bus stop at Tojal was next to a petrol station with a big roof covering the pumps area. We took advantage of this to put on our larger poncho-style raincoats. These cover everything except out boots and lower trouser legs. So when we set off we were dry, that didn't last long. The raincoats protect you from the direct rain but the inside of them fairly quickly gets wet just from condensation, this in turn wetting your inner clothes. After about an hour of walking you're almost as wet inside as if you'd never had the raincoat on. Not quite, but it felt that way.
The actual walk would have been nice, we only did about 10km through what would normally be rather attractive countryside. But when everything is dripping it's not quite the same. In some ways we had taken a very good decision to bus-travel part of the way and only do a shorter walk. If, by any fat chance, we had decided to walk the whole way it would have been hellish, not enjoyable in any way. The short distance we did was enough in the circumstances.
It was too wet to chance taking our cameras out much, but I did get a few pictures.
When we finally arrived in Alvaiazere we soon found the albergue that we had booked for tonight. Unfortunately it was closed, but with a message on the door to press the bell button. We tried this several times with no results. What now? Just nearby is a cafe. So we went there and had a drink and small snack, mainly to waste time as we suspected that someone may be there at about 2pm.
It got to 2pm, still nothing so a little later we decided to send a text message to the number we had used when we booked the place. We sent this, but some while later we hadn't had any reply. We couldn't sit around dripping in the café anymore as we'd more than overstayed our welcome and small purchases. The rain had eased a little so we decided to have a wander around the area, possibly to find a warmer cafe, the previous one was freezing cold.
We'd only gone about 50 yards when we heard someone shouting to us. It was the wife of the albergue owner, she'd only just read our message and had come out to try to find us. She was full of apologies and quickly showed us into the albergue. We have a fine room and the property is very nice and cosy, particularly when Carlos, the owner arrived and lit the wood-burning stove.
We soon got ourselves installed, had hot showers, and took all of our wet and dirty clothes downstairs to a laundry to be washed and dried. The laundry is operated by Carlos's mother who promises to bring them up to the albergue when they are done later this afternoon.
Carlos, himself, after dealing with the fire proceeded to stamp our credentials. Not with the normal inked rubber stamp, but with something much more special, A real hot wax embossed seal, no less.
Finally sitting snug and dry.
Current view from our bedroom window, it's still raining.
Tomorrow we plan on walking to Ansiao, we hope that the weather is better, the forcast isn't.
We've just been joined in the albergue by Brian from just north of Dublin. He has walked the whole 30+ km from Tomar today, very impressive. He has also been given the privilege of sleeping in the John Brierley Room, the very same bedroom that the writer of the most famous Camino guides, (the ones that usually encourage people to walk 30km a day) slept in a year or so back when he was in the area surveying the route.
STOP PRESS NEWS: Our freshly washed and dried clothes have just been delivered, Barbara is very impressed.
As I mentioned yesterday, we started from Tomar this morning by traveling out by bus to Tojal. When we left the hotel the weather was rather overcast and didn't look promising. Sure enough, as we were on the bus, just leaving Tomar it started to rain. And that sums up most of today.
It rained! Then it rained some more. Then it rained harder. And it carried on raining even more
The whole of our walking today was in heavy rain. The bus stop at Tojal was next to a petrol station with a big roof covering the pumps area. We took advantage of this to put on our larger poncho-style raincoats. These cover everything except out boots and lower trouser legs. So when we set off we were dry, that didn't last long. The raincoats protect you from the direct rain but the inside of them fairly quickly gets wet just from condensation, this in turn wetting your inner clothes. After about an hour of walking you're almost as wet inside as if you'd never had the raincoat on. Not quite, but it felt that way.
The actual walk would have been nice, we only did about 10km through what would normally be rather attractive countryside. But when everything is dripping it's not quite the same. In some ways we had taken a very good decision to bus-travel part of the way and only do a shorter walk. If, by any fat chance, we had decided to walk the whole way it would have been hellish, not enjoyable in any way. The short distance we did was enough in the circumstances.
It was too wet to chance taking our cameras out much, but I did get a few pictures.
It got to 2pm, still nothing so a little later we decided to send a text message to the number we had used when we booked the place. We sent this, but some while later we hadn't had any reply. We couldn't sit around dripping in the café anymore as we'd more than overstayed our welcome and small purchases. The rain had eased a little so we decided to have a wander around the area, possibly to find a warmer cafe, the previous one was freezing cold.
We'd only gone about 50 yards when we heard someone shouting to us. It was the wife of the albergue owner, she'd only just read our message and had come out to try to find us. She was full of apologies and quickly showed us into the albergue. We have a fine room and the property is very nice and cosy, particularly when Carlos, the owner arrived and lit the wood-burning stove.
We soon got ourselves installed, had hot showers, and took all of our wet and dirty clothes downstairs to a laundry to be washed and dried. The laundry is operated by Carlos's mother who promises to bring them up to the albergue when they are done later this afternoon.
Carlos, himself, after dealing with the fire proceeded to stamp our credentials. Not with the normal inked rubber stamp, but with something much more special, A real hot wax embossed seal, no less.
Current view from our bedroom window, it's still raining.
Tomorrow we plan on walking to Ansiao, we hope that the weather is better, the forcast isn't.
We've just been joined in the albergue by Brian from just north of Dublin. He has walked the whole 30+ km from Tomar today, very impressive. He has also been given the privilege of sleeping in the John Brierley Room, the very same bedroom that the writer of the most famous Camino guides, (the ones that usually encourage people to walk 30km a day) slept in a year or so back when he was in the area surveying the route.
STOP PRESS NEWS: Our freshly washed and dried clothes have just been delivered, Barbara is very impressed.
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