Stage 11. Alfeloas to Albergaria-a-Velha - 31.5kms, cloudy, then clear and warm

Another early start on a cloudy morning. We headed out of our little albergue in search of the arrows that would assure us we were on the way again. We struggled to find them, so headed for the main highway, every torch and light we had blazing to warn oncoming trucks.

 It was full on for a while but we eventually found the arrows at the cruce (cross) below and not long after that, a welcome cafe for breakfast.

It was a fairly hard morning's walk, not helped by the weather which remained grey and foggy until quite late. 

As we've said before, the caminho is not sanitised, what you get is what is there. On a number of occasions today we walked through ugly industrial zones, the roadsides choked by rubbish. When the walking is hard and the surroundings unlovely, it raises again the question of your 'yes' to the way. Can we be open to this too? Can we be receptive to the unfolding in these circumstances?

And, so to Sarah's haiku for the day:

Litter strewn by the grey 

Industrial zone

And young grey trees, breathing.

Midway through the morning, when we had already covered 15km, the sun broke through at the little town of Agueda, which was also preparing for a festival which somehow involved lots of umbrellas. Their bright colours lifted our spirits. Hopefully they are not a sign of things to come!!

Even the benches and lamp posts were rainbow coloured, and reminded us of Kaleidoscope. Here's Sarah, suffering as you can see from a bad case of 'hat hair'.

From Agueda, we proceeded by the river for a time.

Then it was back to undulating road (nb. Sarah looks a little less lively here!).

There was the odd rail crossing, or is that the (an) odd pilgrim crossing the rail??

Neil too was getting tired. This guy flew past at one point!

The industrial theme continued - a forklift convention...

For some reason, this region also seems to specialise in kitsch garden adornment.

Corn drying in the driveway again - this time, with the kernels off the cob.

Towards the final part of the stage, we crossed a Roman bridge and enjoyed a pleasant walk through a shady eucalyptus forest. Geoff by this time had bolted and was closing in on the albergue.

We are now in Albergaria, midway between Coimbra and Porto, and almost exactly half way between Lisbon and Santiago (305km to go).

We are in a clean albergue run by, Jose, a very friendly hospitallero. We're still going and still smiling and we hope you're all well too.

Bom caminho,

Sarah and Neil

Ps. Ilja, if you see this, we are hoping you're going well too!