May 6 the from Goleta to Tomar,
I smell sooooo good today, was 29 degrees C today so got to an early start at 6.30am and headed north with a fellow pilgrim from the Netherlands named  Mark, had great conversation as he is very much into learning about life, life skills, and personal growth.   Along the way into the village of Vila nova barquina, we came across the abandoned palace of Quinta Cardigan, magic

It was sad to see these great old building falling into disrepair because of the bad economy.  We stopped at a bridge and could see the river valley as the sun came up , just before heading into a forest where we had three big climbs today

so, a lot of the group got lost in the forest,may be the one time being a hasher gave me the upper hand, john and I breezed through this area as we could see the lay of the land. My feet are doing well now, though they don't look pretty, and I slowed my pace a bit, and forced myself to look up and out, the further out into the countryside we get the more I'm enjoying the hike, but 5 days averaging 22 miles a day is hard on the body,and this does not ease up till day  9 where we have a 14 miler, just one.

hiking through the barren forest areas where direction markers were non existantK