13th ,May .we were a little late getting started today,6.30am. The first 5k was through Eucalyptus forest, which was great, the sun stayed behind clouds all day and made for easier hiking. Trouble with starting early is that we get to coffee stops before they open and have to march on. 2 hours in and we found a cafe in the little village of Pinheiro.

A ham and cheese sandwich on a fresh baked roll, a coffee and I'm ready to keep on.

Today was very hilly and we lost the trail at one point, when the pilgrims walked the way, they invariably spent the nights in local churches, so we headed for the town church, which was at the top of the hill, obviously, and found the trail again. Outside of Canicos, through a very rural area, we passed this cute home and the lady was calling us in, today is the date the Lady of the Rosary presented herself in Fatima in 1917, and the reason the pilgrims walk to Fatima each year. Well the mass was being shown on TV ,and as we were pilgrims, she wanted us to see it. Yesterday there were over 200,000 pilgrims in the Fatima Square, they stayed there overnight, and I have no idea how many were there today for mass and communion. Anyway, this lady insisted we come in to see, which I was glad for, I took photos of the TV screen showing the square to get an idea. 

Before I went into her house, I dropped my backpack, I could just see me with " Leonard the girl elephant" on my back, turn to see something in the house, and knock her prized crystal off the book shelf, which would fall and smash itself as it knocked the pot plant off the lower shelf, that would roll off and fall, mortally wounding her cat, which would throw up the mouse if ate last night which would make the kind lady scream, and throw us out.

Anyway, it was so touching to be so welcomed, this is the lady in her TV room with me, she was so excited to have pilgrims in her house at this moment, that she was calling and bragging to her friends, I think its good luck.

Banana break as we headed through the back alley of an old farm community just before lunch

taking a break with 10k to go at the Pont Ui

met a couple on trail who are doing just a small section of the Way, turns out they met on a Kontiki tour in 1976, whom i worked for for 6 years, and I know their driver.

Going to try and hook them up together again after all these years.

He and I got ahead and with 5 k to go for the day, we decided to stop for a beer at this little bar and wait for the others, turns out we stopped outside our night stay without realizing it, had we not stopped, we would have walked by and put another 5 k behind us, only to have to walk back. Can you imagine how far I would have spat the pacifier out of the stroller had I made that mistake. Going to find a local pub and watch the semi finals of the UEFA CUP football tonight, then tomorrow its a long one, all the way into Porto,  we are well over half way of this leg.