No Time to Rest: Cork and Eucalyptus Trees

We learned from our experience yesterday and left much earlier this morning. We were up at 5am and out the door at 5:45am. A 'picnic breakfast' had been delivered to our room before 5am, so we wolfed down the dry ham and cheese sandwich, a banana, and a small boxed juice that was provided.

Even though Jerry and I teach Land Navigation at the SAR Academy, we find ourselves challenged working our way through the streets of a large 16th century town. We ended-up winding our way down the hill upon which Santarem sits to the Camino in the dark via a high-consequence trail atop a wall that is no doubt an archeological artifact.

The morning was warm. Not as cool as it was yesterday morning, so we knew we were in for a HOT day. We hiked east into the sun out of town and then turned north following the yellow painted arrows of The Way. We passed pepper fields and vinyards. Tractors pulling trailers were abundant on The Way in this section.

We turned north and made our way to the small village of Vale de Figueira at 12km where we purchased simple sandwiches and coffee from a cafe. We also bought 4 bottles of water to 'camel-up' for the hot 12 remaining kilometers ahead where we knew there would not be any water or services.

The Way passed by cork and eucalyptus trees. I had never seen either, so this was somewhat fascinating to me. It appeared the larger cork trees had been 'harvested' as the lower portions of their trunks were bare. The thick cork bark has a sort of rubbery elasticity that does not break off. I found a fallen branch and peeled a little off as a token momento of our journey through the area. The piece I obtained was thin and worthless, but interesting.

As the day wore on, the solar radiation increased and it became more and more uncomfortable to hike with a pack. We passed though a field that was being irrigated and I stood in the spray from an industrial spinkler long enough to get soaked. It felt good to hike for a while thereafter as the water evaporated from my soaked clothing and cooled my skin.

We arrived in Azinhaga at 1pm ahead of the worst of the heat. We passed by a 16th century church... later in town we passed by an old man sitting on a chair by the road who may have been from the same century.

We made our way to the Casa de Azzancha Albergue on the opposite side of town, our accomodations for the night, and checked-in. It is a nice, clean, little residence, an we were happy to have escaped the worst heat of the day.