Stage 27: Vila Do Conte - Barcelinos, 35 kms, sunny, 22

What Do You Mean By Straight?

As it turns out a very pertinent question. As you might tell, we made the decision to head inland today. Not sure after all the roads and cobbles today that it was the best decision, but the scenery was very good. We were up at the usual and on the road at the usual 7:00, but before we left I picked up the morning sunrise. Pretty nice.

We had decided to follow an old route out of town that is no longer marked. It follows a 19th century aqueduct that runs for about 6.5 kms from town to the north.  Nope, not Roman, but nice nonetheless. 

We climbed to the aqueduct in time to catch the tail end of the sunrise. 

Had we been a few minutes earlier it would have been spectacular, but as it was, it was pretty good.

Nothing like a sunrise cemetery! Have seen a few while on the road these past few years.

Of course we followed Brierley's directions. By now I should know better. I just can't connect with this dude's mind. I tried to follow his directions to the 'T', but while I was asking for directions we lost touch with Neil and Sarah and they walked on. Such is the Camino. Figured we find each other at the end of the day. We followed the aqueduct without problem, but after crossing under the autostrata things just didn't work out as well as they might. I guess Annemarie hear me muttering about Brierley's instructions and decided they weren't any good. So she tossed them. "What do you mean you threw them away?"  The response was somewhat cryptic. So there we were...somewhere around here.

I flagged down a motorcyclist to ask and he was really helpful. He helpfully sent us off in the wrong direction. So I asked two pig farmers. We didn't understand everything, but we got the gist of it...walk down the road straight onwards. You can't miss it. That carried us about a kilometre. Then there was a fork in the road. We asked two older ladies. Their rapid fire answer that I understood even less of sent us off in the more or less correct direction.  "Just go straight down the road, can't miss it". Heard that before. Asked again as we approached Beiriz. "Just go straight". Yup. Finally found this church that was actually on the map.

We showed our map to at least three different folks with the question how do we find this goat track to Sāo Pedro De Rates? "Oh, well just go straight on down this road, no problem". Yup. 

Remember, we didn't have one of those really excellent German map guides. Our first mistake before we came, never to be repeated. Annemarie was great through all is. It was way more road walking than it was intended to be.

We stopped at a little bar for water and toilets and again asked our question. You guessed it..."straight on down the road". Yup. None of the roads here are straight. They curve and split and do all sorts of things. Who organized the grid here? 

I stopped a small truck and asked the driver my usual question and sure enough he confirmed what we expected. We'd found our way to the town of Rio Mau

Ok, we knew where were were, but we were off course a bit. So decided to connect with the N206 and follow it to the Camino. Well it worked.

But Brierley's map is out of date. we now know that the N206 carries on it doesn't stop as per his map. Obviously he hasn't had a look for a while. We started off on the Caminho route and from behind we heard Neil yelling our names. Seems they had left messages in a couple of bars for us and waited which was really nice of them. They went the right way. They didn't chuck their directions and managed to figure out how the guide worked. We stopped for a break in this neat little town with a great Romanesque church form the 12C.

Beautiful subtle light inside.

I needed a bit of time to clear my head from our wanderings and took off to refocus and to take a few photos. As I said, very beautiful route today!

Always sorts me out.

We walked through some nice country roads. Cobbles, cobbles, cobbles!

We stopped for lunch at Antonio, a very good restaurant sort of dedicated to the pilgrim. The restaurant side is a Michelin Red winner, so excellent. The soup today was very good! Nice operator to! 

We decided to climb a variant route which was road all the way up, a nice gradual climb. Neil and Sarah went onto the trail at the top and headed onwards. We elected to climb to the top to see the sweet little church

and the views. Could see all the way out to the ocean! Excellent views.

They were playing some beautiful music which made the experience all the better. 

But then time to descend. All sorts of crosses on the way down. Wondered if they were related to the stations of the cross sort of thing.

down the trail and across...you guessed it...another bridge. Across the highway.

Nice view.

It seemed to take forever to get into town. We are in a small hotel tonight where our friend Mary stayed a couple of nights ago. Back into an albergue tomorrow...reputedly one of the best on this Caminho. Annemarie is loking for Neil and Sarah so that we can connect for a beer. Time to go. 

Bom Caminho! So was that straight ahead?:)