The Camino and the Coast: Day 8 ~ The Last Supper

Day 8 ~ Ericeira to Encarnação

I actually had a great sleep last night. I don't think the giant snored at all. We must have both been exhausted.

In fact when I woke up, I had to finish my blog and so I let him sleep in.

I've rediscovered in just 8 days what I have known for a lifetime. Dom and I are similar in many ways but also very different. We have our moments of giggles and fun but we are both primarily loners and both need our space.

We searched the town after packing up our gear for a place to have breakfast. Despite the small town having so many restaurants it was difficult to find anything more than coffee and a croissant. We found GIG.... '

Green is Good'. It was a total vegan, 'let's love the earth' kind of place but we were starving. Dom had a salmon and poached egg wrap(loved it) and I had a veggie omelette and of course a cappuccino.

I had to remortgage my house to pay for it hahahaha.

We easily navigated out of town and it truly is a place I want to come back to. Ericeira was a perfect little seaside town.

We walked along the GR11 ~ a national trail that follows the sea and is marked with the red and white stripe.

After our fiasco yesterday, we scoured the landscape for markers to avoid going astray.

The trail today was a glorious walk along the cliff edge with stunning views.

We had a late start but still spent the majority of the day stopping every 10 feet for another photo.

We walked until the trail could no longer follow the sea.

We climbed hills and forest tracks and made it 17kms. It may not seem like a far distance but the terrain is so extreme and exhausting and we are moving slowly. Portugal is not flat.... not going along the coast anyway.

Some time around km 10, we were following a narrow trail through the bamboo bushes that seem to be everywhere.

I heard from behind me, Dom make a yelp, like a bear caught in a trap. He has injured his ankle. It was a treacherous stretch of uneven ground and with his pack weight combined with his body weight, his ankle said, nope, not today. We rested on a rock where I massaged an analgesic into both his ankles. Even through the pain, we laughed about him being the King and I, his Squire, tending to his majesty hahaha. Then we had a talk... a serious talk about the potential dangers of him continuing in his injured state.

We think we have a solution. I have a cousin in Portugal. Fatima is someone I have known since I was a little girl but haven't seen in 30 years.

My daughter and her son Bruno have become very close friends through snapchat from across the ocean. She has 3 wonderful boys and understands my plight.

I talked with her tonight and have agreed that I will send her a special delivery tomorrow. Dominick is going to hop on a train to Setubal where he can recover and relax while I complete my journey.

He is very excited to have this opportunity and I am excited for him. He will have his own personal adventure.... like an exchange student... but without school.

So to motivate him to complete his day, I offered him a deluxe dinner... anything he wants. We joked and called it his last supper.

When we finally reached civilization again and a restaurant, he ordered a mariscos platter for 2... for himself.

I had wine... I asked for a glass and they brought me a pitcher. They must have heard the rumours about me hahaha.

I also had veggie soup and a steak.

It took Dom a long time to eat every morsel on the platter but he did it.. I patiently waited and nursed my pitcher. In fact, I shared the wine with him and we spent the entire taxi ride to our new hotel, giggling like little kids.

It was an easy 10 min ride to our hotel but it is very isolated.

It has its own beach in a cove with crazy, wild waves and by the time we checked in and dropped off our gear, it was getting close to nightfall. No sunset tonight but I managed to catch the evening light on the windy shore.