Chapter 9
Today we walked 20.5 miles / 34 km in 25 + degrees.
A big, big shift completed in around 8 hours of walking.
In a moment of self deference to Camino Steve, I granted him a musical choice.
That might be his one and only chance!
In the heavily Scouse accented words of the Accrington Stanley ‘British Milk’ advert from back in the day:
Florence + the Machine…….
“Who are they?” 😜
“Must do better” …..
….. is my (retired) Headteacher’s report on that particular assignment.
More on today’s walk: tomorrow.
As you’ve probably realised, I am exposing you all to many of my favourite songs under the guise of blog writing.
A child of the 60’s whose musical influences were mostly from the 80’s.
The 80’s were by far the best musical era in my humble opinion.
Contentious!
Even allowing for my love of the 80’s, I can adapt to and appreciate many genres.
My choice for the chapter title is a case in point.
Mungo Jerry released the classic “In the summertime” in 1970.
A 3 – track maxi single!
Blimey!
How many of us remember them?
I went along with Camino Steve’s song suggestion yesterday.A
A mad moment of Chamberlain-esque appeasement.
I’ve not heard the song yet, but apparently Jimi Hendrix “could play a bit”.
And “Castles of Sand” was still pretty appropriate.
It is very deep at times.
Sometimes we probably felt like we were walking through ‘oceans of sand’.
There will be those who swear by the music of the 60’s, salute the 70’s or trumpet the 90’s.
None of them were bad musical times: but, in my humble opinion, they just don’t compare.
As for the 00’s: don’t even bother!
That era has seen the quality of popular music ‘Slip sliding away!’ 🎵😜
Not every walking related song will make my stringent editorial cut.
Eg: “These boots were made for walking” is a perfect chapter title.
But, in my view, this too nuanced and too bad a song!
So it won’t make my cut. 😜
The only restrictions to my choice making has been that the chosen song must relate to this trip and must be a ‘banger!’
Yesterday we walked a more modest 29,000 steps 13.9 miles.
We have now walked a total of 112 miles and over 200,000 steps in 6.5 days of walking.
So an easier day was very welcome.
Don’t be fooled though.
“Nobody said it was easy.” 🎵.
We also know that the walk on Monday was very much the calm before the storm.
The next 4 days will be likely to exceed 30 km each day: that’s 18+ miles.
This will be walking in quite warm temperatures of around 24 degrees.
This is our forecast!
Yippee!
Or should that be:
Ouch?
Now, we have to be quite smart along the trail to Lisbon: all the way from our current location in Sines. T
That’s around 70 miles
Accommodation choices are really limited and eye watering in expense.
So we’ve booked ahead again, for the next 2 nights and managed to secure some more reasonably priced sleep overs.
The payback is extra distance walking to those places of course.
As Isaac Newton famously discovered:
“For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction”.
We both feel we have now discovered our ‘Camino legs’.
It is just the bottoms of our feet that are a bit sore.
Sandy shoes really don’t help soothe sores.
Neither of us are limping but we are nursing either blisters or impact strains in the soles of our feet.
However, “we are marching on together” 🎵.
Porto Covo is the official start point of the Fisherman’s Trail.
It is the start if you choose, like the current majority of walkers, to walk it north to south.
For us it was the end as we walked south to north.
It was also probably the end point of the Algarve region of Portugal.
I’ve been so impressed with this whole region.,
It has a lot of beauty.
In places it is massively overdeveloped, but its coastal core is sublime.
All the way from Faro in the east to Porto Covo on the south west.
It rocks!
I knew this already.
Last October, Nicky and I were fortunate enough to enjoy 15 days in Albufeira, courtesy of some lovely friends, Michael and Sharon, who own a villa located about 3 km from the coast.
I was so impressed by that area that I wrote another blog:T
The Allure of the Algarve.
The Allure of the Algarve
On that trip, we walked to Submarine Rock.
Thinking of that name was clearly a major piece of work for a local branding company!
Having walked near Albufeira (and loved it) , it still seems to me, that the further west you go, the better and better it gets!
We started at the small lighthouse in Porto Covo and followed the coast from there, all the way to Sines.
This is meant to be a less pretty part of the coast.
If true, it wasn’t a lesser experience by much.
Admittedly there are some ugly buildings along the coast: Sines is an industrial town.
But the coastal path is still stunning, bedecked with vibrant flowers with the azure blue of the Atlantic blending seamlessly with the golden sands of multiple beaches and trails.
Sadly, for the first time, we did notice the impact of human beings on some of the scenery and some of the beaches.
The camino scallop shell could not hide the ugliness of the town’s electric works.
It resembled Mordor!
No doubt we will raise the subject of beach litter again in future ramblings.
For Camino Steve, it is a real issue.
For us both actually.
Whilst I navigate our route, he often stoops to pick up a plastic bottle or piece of debris and carries it on with him till he finds a bin.
Just think!
If we all picked up one piece of litter at the beach, we could make such a difference.
Slow for sure: but still a positive action.
We passed a dead dolphin.
Presumably it had been washed up on to the beach in recent storms?
Sad.
But that is nature’s way.
We took a trudge along ‘the long and winding road’ 🎵.
Again!
Fortunately we broke off pretty quickly and returned to the beach trail.
At one point the road had disappeared.
Washed away by the winter storms.
We cautiously took precautions on the ‘pallet path’, to ford the stream that only weeks before, had washed away the bridge.
The electric works were no better visually, the closer we got.
We were bemused that so many camper vans were parked next to it, for the day.
Yards away there were massive, empty car parks that were free and looked over the sea.
People?
People are weird!
We arrived in Sines at the very respectable time of 2pm.
We had a long and hot 5km tarmac trudge to finish.
The huge tanker in the port was absolutely massive, dominating the horizon and growing bigger and bigger as we approached.
Sines itself was nothing special, but it did have some interesting sights.
We walked down to the fishing port past the works’s biggest propeller.
On the quayside we met Jorge: a local sea fisherman.
He offered us cooked fish.
Genuinely generous.
His cooking station and living area was a thing to behold!
What a tough life.
But what a kind man.
We walked up into the town, past this stunning ‘do it upper!’
It could have been straight out of a Graham Green novel:
‘Our man in Havana’.
We went on to enjoy dinner at a superb restaurant.
Chicken strips with vinegar, honey and sesame and salt cod, grated potatoes with scrambled egg in the rice.
Sumptuous!
€30 for the 2 of us.
The owner was so lovely too .
We just missed the sunset. But all in all we had nothing to complain about.
And best of all, our hostel was next door to the restaurant.
So no walking extras!
Thanks for the read.
Buen Camino.
Martin x
Ps in 3 weeks my sister Liz will join me in Porto to walk the 230 km to Santiago with me.
I’m proud of her.
Every day is a challenge, but she is making progress.
She lost her daughter Hannah in a car crash where the other driver was drunk.
Lizzie’s world collapsed.
That’s partly why I’m doing this long walk.
If you feel inclined to sponsor me to support the ‘books for infants’ initiative that Lizzie and her family have set up, please click on the link below.
Thank you if you do.
Martin Moorman is a 61 year old retired Headteacher who lives with his wife Nicky, daughter and her family in North Yorkshire, UK.
Happily married for 36 years, Martin and Nicky have 3 grown up children, all happily married too. In his spare time Martin loves walking, photography, football, renovating cooking and talking rubbish to anyone who will listen!
Yesterday’s Question
Which famous artist painted ‘Mary Magdalene’ which hangs in Burgos Cathedral?
Answer: Leonardo da Vinci
Apologies: no question today! I’ve run out of steam and I need to wash my smalls 😜
Martin Moorman 
Great read as always Martin.
very jealous of the lovely forcast you now have
x
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