The Beauty Helped with the Exhaustion!
May 30, 2019 was my last night in Portugal. As I was looking out my window just before I went to bed, I took this picture.
What I saw across the estuary from where were staying, was the first hill I would conquer in the morning as we crossed the border into Spain. I was exhausted from the 33 Km fiasco of the day!
Hello Spain! Hablas Español?
As I sat in that boat, I started to reflect upon the beauty of the Portuguese coastline I had just walked, Meeting  some of the nicest people I’ve ever met in my life (although some were complete strangers), and totally being captivated by the blessing of being able to do a hike so beautiful as this!
The hill facing us needed to be climbed! We kept telling ourselves it was only 18 km today, only 18 km!  I think I chanted it in my mind wishing it to be true . What we have discovered is that no guide book is correct! Any distance they tell us is at least 5 km shorter than the actual distance, and it’s EXHAUSTING!
The Paths on the Hill and the Town of Guarda
Once we got through the town,  we were struck by our first glimpse of the ocean coastline of Spain ! It  it did not disappoint us at all ! This is the view from the back side of the hill and the town of Guarda!
This was a hot and tough day. I think we just wanted it to end because we were fried from yesterday and it seemed like this 18 km walk went on for 38 km.  The weather forecast said 28° but the temperature readings we were seeing indicated it was more like 36°C ! I drank 3 L of water whilst hiking!
Usually we stop for a snack or a late lunch. Today there was nowhere to stop except for one remote, little makeshift café which provided a quick water and bathroom break. The food was not something I was going to attempt!
We did see this amazing structure built out on the rock of the shoreline and we didn’t know what it was until we saw the sign and read it indicating that it was some sort of lobster trap and I went out on the rock to take some pictures.
I would love to explain to you how it works but it was so hot there wasn’t a cloud in the sky and the billboard was in Spanish and I really just wanted to get to my destination!
Oh The Hot Daunting Day!
What I’m going to show you next is a series of photos taken in order of what we saw when we were hiking today. We walked close to the waters edge, climbed hills to the level where the highway was, and we crossed all sorts of terrain.
We always had the coastline of Spain to our left, the mountains and hills on our right, and the highway was to out right as well. The beauty was mesmerizing but the ups and downs and going through forests and crossing rough paths, Â just made what was supposed to be a short day extremely long and exhausting!
I couldn’t help but fall in love with what I saw! Yesterday we met another hiker name Jennifer from Halifax and she was mesmerized by the fact that this coastline mimicked the coasters line from where she was from.
Sunburned, exhausted, but ever so happy to see this! Note the hat head and the bad hair day I was having!
The following few pictures of from the town that we are staying in tonight called, Oia, Spain!
It’s a very cute and quaint town. We discovered when we went out for dinner, that it’s also very busy and has beautiful water views from everywhere, including the old monastery in the center of town.
Sunset  set from My Hotel Balcony!
KEEP WALKING!
