March 22 - 23: Rain & Shine (Esposende & Viana do Castelo)

We seriously thought about not walking today. The “Severe Coastal Weather Event” howled and rained its way through the night. In the morning, the winds were forecast for 80km/hour gusts and rain until 2pm. However, by mid-morning, the conditions had improved (gusts down to 68km/hour, rain forecast to stop at around noon). So, we suited up and headed out around 11:30.

The first couple of hours were tough. Rain fired at you above 50km/hour stings. Wind you have to fight against, on soaked, slippery surfaces, ups the ante. But, in fact, we had a good day. We only had 18km to walk and by 2pm, it was even sunny, if still blowy. There were a few showers in the afternoon, but it could have been so unpleasant - and it wasn’t.

We left the coastal boardwalk and walked through a lot of cultivated land: fields of onions; tilled land awaiting sowing; commercial cloches full of lettuce and spring greens (those that weren’t clattering and tattered having had a bad storm-season. Yesterday may have been the equinox, but today truly felt like spring.

Walking through the North Coast Nature Reserve was green, deep and pleasant. We passed a work crew clearing a large tree that came down across the trail overnight. As “thank you” is one of our ten words in Portuguese, we thanked them. We also passed an artist’s tree, hung with trinkets for pilgrims to buy on an honour system, mostly shells with worthy sayings on them (See Album “Camino Week 3: Mar 15 – 22).

Today was completely overshadowed by the intensity of my latest “Bridge of Death” experience. The way into Viana do Castelo, our rest stop for today, is the Ponte Eiffel. Built by the great man, it is nearly 700m of elevated, wind-shaken, rattling iron bridge. Erected over the Lima river in 1878, it is double-tiered: rail on the bottom, cars and people on top. This puts walkers on a one-metre-wide metal surface with a see-through, curlicue iron balustrade, over 61m above the water. It was almost 8 minutes of unremitting terror, including having to pass 2 people going the other way, with traffic whizzing past on the right…

Otherwise, it was a wonderful day. Despite promised clear skies, we were rained on thrice. We were also in shirtsleeves for several hours. We went from coastal walk; through farmland; uphill through eucalyptus plantations to stone villages with big, well-maintained churches; downhill through deciduous forest, beside a rushing river that we crossed using a rustic, open stone bridge above the weir.

We met a young German today who was having a tough time mentally. He asked if we would walk with him (we did). At 25, he is clearly in distress. As we walked, a car pulled up. An old man rolled down the window and handed our friend a walking stick. He immediately burst into tears. He had left his stick in a bakery earlier. It was a real “camino moment”. I hope it helped him.