from Alte to Messines, 19,9 km

Buffet breakfast gives an opportunity to make take-away sandwitches.
In addition to us there are two groups on old German people in the hotel. We can get out from the backdoor that is closer to the trail. Today will be a short day.
First there's a snake on the road. A small one. Calla lilies blossom next to a ditch. Nice tailwind takes us near Vale Seco. A dog jumps over the fence from a garden and obviously wants to join us. An aggressive sort of a dog but he's still a puppy. He has a collar with remains of a rope on his neck. We don't want to take with us any more dogs. Besides, this one has an annoying habit of jumping with flashing teeth on people. So we leave our backpacks under a tree and go back to the house to knock on the door. This is complicated because the gate is locked. All shutters are firmly closed. Nothing reacts to Sara's yelling. I follow the dog over the fence and knock. Nothing. Behind the house I find the rest of the rope which at least means that the dog belongs to this house. Sara goes to try her luck with the nearest neighbour. No-one there either. I notice that the collar of the dog has a clip. If I could make a knot in the rope then that would enable me to attach him to it without spending unnecessary long time near the teeth. I climb back in the garden and fuss with the rope. It consist of something similar to wire and this is not very cooperative material. Instead it gets stuck to my finger and I leave bloody finerprints with dna on the scene. I look around to see if there would be something else where I could attach the beast. There is. A shorter rope with a similar clip. Now I only need to tease the dog back into the garden. A neighbour drives by but is not interested what two tourists who obviously don't belong to the house are organizing here. The dog reacts to a toy but tends to jump into my hand with his teeth. So I press him down to show who's boss here and manage to unite the clips. And wave the doggy goodbye.
After some pigs and goats there's a gas station where I can wash my hands from the dog and blood and have an ice-cream. This time we sit in front of the café and look approvingly at men going in and coming out. The highlight of the trip - looking arrogant in front of a gas station.
We cross many different orchards, mostly covered in flowers. Orange trees have blossoms and fruits at the same time. Not much climbing today. Only in villages it is better to lean on the shady side of the street. The wind that strew my socks all over the balcony and knocked flower pots over in villages in still blowing. Lot of highways and most of the time cars can be heard.
Before the end of today's section the trails dives into thicket next to a stream. It was described in the book as getting into closer contact with nature. In practise it means that bush scratches your legs and pack is stuck in trees. The stream is dammed in a few places for some reason. A paved road with much traffic goes into Messines, makes then a strange detour so that we fall on main street from somewhere between a cemetery and the railway.
The hostess of the accommodation that Sara picked says many words that all together probably mean that she needs to clean our rooms. We sit in the café and wait. Then we sit in the only restaurant that is open. 'Seja responsįvel. Beba com moderaēćo' says the beer mat. It likely means that you should take another beer. After spending some time with my book we hang around in the city for some time. Many houses, not much character. This civilization isn't much of a thing. Meanwhile we practise different modes of walking but it doesn't even come close to the ministry of sillywalks. Looks like one toenail plans to leave me which is a bit unexpected course of events.
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from Barranco do Velho to Salir and Alte, 30,27 km
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from Messines to Silves, 29,2 km

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