Azinhaga to Tomar

26.8 km
Today was a beast physically. What was described in the guidebook as “flower lined lanes and a stroll through a eucalyptus forest”, was quite deceiving. The flower lined lanes part was true, but that was no stroll in the forest! It was incredibly hot and steep. The forest section, which was in total about 7km took me 3 hours. I am wiped out. My HR has not been happy about it ever since. I have a tricky heart rate since my cardiac arrest, but I think some dehydration came in to play as well.

I started off early to beat the heat, leaving my hostel at 5:15am. I wound my way through some really beautiful villages and had a ten minute conversation with a man who only spoke Portuguese. He was sitting outside a church in a tiny town where I stopped to change my socks. He showed me the water station and proceeded to talk my ear off, although I have no clue what he was saying! Who knows maybe he asked me on a date!

I physically feel pretty good. I am not nearly as exhausted as I was yesterday! I had no tears today, even with the forest fiasco. To be on the safe side I am going to shorten my day tomorrow. I plan to visit the castle of Tomar and Convento de Cristo in the morning and then take a cab past the industrial section of Tomar and join the path from there. I feel like a cheater, but the mantra of the Camino is ,”listen to your body!”. My body might not have notified me but Apple Watch sure has!Read more