We left at dawn to walk 3 hours or so before the blazing heat.
Today the way was mainly through pine and eucalyptus woods and olive groves. The yellow arrows to Santiago were now more frequent and we also saw blue arrows in the opposite direction, showing the way to Fatima. The heat was intense. Johanna (from Austria) – described the wind as feeling like a hairdryer.
We completed the 25 kilometers to Cernache by 2pm and fortunately spotted a cafe. Johanna decided to spend the night there – she had a longer time frame for her Camino than the rest of us. Will (from Scotland) Sam (From Australia) Nola (from NewZealand) and Jenae (from the US) all sensibly decided they had reached their physical limit and caught a cab to Coimbra where they planned to stay the night. For me, after having this as a goal for two years, I just had to walk the whole way. Suffice to say, it was another 12 kilometers, steep in places and very hot! We had left Alvorge soon after 5:30am and it was almost 7pm when I arrived, exhausted, at the hostel.
Coimbra is famous for its medieval university and is a beautiful town (see pictures below) but somehow both the hostel and the town felt a bit jarring – the hostel (and town) was for tourists and was the opposite of yesterday’s hostel which, though very basic, had such a feeling of caring.
Fatijah's Camino Portugués 2016 