Day 11: Rabaçal to Coimbra

I started out shortly after 6:00 am from Rabaçal knowing I would have to make up the 3.9 kms that Anita & Ernie had walked yesterday when they continued onwards to Zambujal. I thought I would be trailing them until we got to Conimbriga, the site of Portugal's largest and most impressive Roman site that Ernie was keen to see. As it turned out, they had gotten off to a later start than anticipated so I caught up with them just as they were leaving of Zambujal.

On our way to Conimbriga, we crossed paths with an oddball barefoot "priest" who gave us our scripture reading for the day. The passage urged us to love our family, love our friends, love the people we work with. In essence, the importance to love others. We weren't sure if this was the priest's shtick to ask us for money, but he continued to say that happiness was found within us, not the outside world, and that we should be tortoises and not hares on our Camino journey. He then got us to each ring a bell 3 times for luck and we continued on our way. We weren't sure what to make of him, but he didn't ask us for anything in return, and his words certainly resonated true with me.

We stopped at a cafe in Conimbriga for our first break of the day only to discover that we had already overshot the Roman ruins by 1.1 kms. I hesitated to retrace my steps, adding extra mileage to a day that was already proving to be a scorcher. In the end, I couldn't resist, nor could Ernie so we went back to see the ruins while Anita decided to carry onwards.

When we got to the ruins, we were so disappointed that we wouldn't be able to access the site until 10:00 am so we had to content ourselves by touring what we could from the exterior.

As a result of our desire to see the Roman ruins, Ernie and I ended up playing catch-up with Anita for most of the day. We finally met back up in Antanhol for the last 6.3 kms into Coimbra.

We arrived tired and hot and as we walked through town to our accommodations, we saw a sign telling us it was 14:45 and 35 degrees. With the backtracking we did, I walked about 32 kms today. It was a real sense of accomplishment, and the cherry on today's cake was when I saw Roch hiking up the hill to our guesthouse.

Distance covered since Lisbon: 252 kms.Read more