Day 5: Ponte de Lima to Aqualonga (São Roque)

By Day 5, we had settled into a comfortable Camino routine. Get up, eat breakfast, fill our water bladders, pack, start walking around 8:30-9:00am, walk for 5-6 miles, take a break and eat, walk more, maybe eat again, get to our destination, unwind (often over a beer), upload pictures to Google Drive, do laundry, shower, hang out and book another place to stay, eat dinner, maybe walk around, and go to bed. Each evening, I typically made a reservation for the day after the next one. That gave us good walking targets while leaving some room to make adjustments as we went along. When we went to bed, I knew our next two places to stay. I used booking.com for most of the reservations.

We began Day 5 crossing the Roman bridge as we left Ponte de Lima. The weather was great (again), and it had cooled off a bit.

We had an interesting variety of paths and scenery during the first part of the day. Surprisingly, there were very few cobblestones until near the end of Day 5. After about 5km, we started climbing and gained about 300 ft before leveling off.

We stopped at Café Nunes in Revolta (another place that loves peregrinos) to rest up before the day's big climb. This is where we first met "the Germans." There was a group of about 15 Germans that ended up "in phase" with us for a few days. It was the first big group that we met on the Camino. They were very nice people, but they tended to overwhelm the facilities wherever they stopped.

Allie expanded her lunch routine by adding Pringles.


This part of the Camino Portugués is well known for a big climb. It started soon after we left the café.

The top of the climb of Alto do Portela Grande is at 405m. We were at about 150m at lunch. So the climb was about 825 ft up. It wasn't bad at all, but it did go pretty much straight up. Much of the climb was over granite. Allie quote: "Haven't these people ever heard of switchbacks?"

We were rewarded with a great view at the top. This climb would be difficult if it was rainy or hotter. The good news is that it is mostly shaded. Even though the temperature was in the mid to high 80s, it was a lot of fun. I look forward to doing it again!

Then we started back down!

I had booked another bed and breakfast place, Quinta da Gandra, for the end of Day 5. As we neared the end of our descent from the Alto, we stopped for a rest and some food. There were other peregrinos that we knew there: a German, a Swedish couple, and a young Italian that we had met earlier. There was also a reporter and videographer who were making a documentary for Portuguese television. We were starting to meet more and more people as we got closer to Spain.


We were within two km of our destination, and the owners of this little rest stop offered to call Quinta da Gandra and have them pick us up. We politely declined and walked the rest of the way.

Staying at Quinta da Gandra was another good choice. It is a renovated property that seems to be a destination for weddings and corporate events. They are just getting started as a bed and breakfast. We were offered snacks and wine. We had a really nice room. The Canadian sisters had again followed our lead and were staying at Quinta da Gandra. There was one other German peregrino couple.

As there were no restaurants nearby, the owners arranged for all of us to be shuttled to a local restaurant in nearby São Roque. It turned out that the shuttle service made quite a few trips to fetch different groups of peregrinos (including the big group of Germans). We all had peregrino meals, and I have to say that I wasn't impressed. That was probably the most overpriced experience we had on the Camino. The good news was that I had a version of the soup that Matt and I had learned to appreciate when we did the Habitat project in Braga. But the "mixed meats" were salty and tough.


On another Camino, this would be a good place to look for some alternatives for dinner.

Today:
Distance:    18.8km / 11.8mi
Walk time:  3:43
Stop time:   2:17
Avg. pace:  11:52/km / 18:54/mi
Ascent:       1368 ft
Descent:     707 ft
Weather was sunny and warm with a high of about 30C (86F)

Progress:
Distance:    100.3km / 62.7mi
Walk time:  19:23
Avg. pace:  11:36/km / 18:33/mi
Ascent:       4620 ft
Descent:     4182 ft

Day 5 Credencial: