Monday 14 September 2026 – With just 20km to do today, and the temperature not forecast to go over 30°C until midday, an early start seemed to be a good way to get the best out of the walk. I set the alarm for 0500, but luckily woke up anyway at exactly 0500, as some technical hitch with my phone had rendered its alarm silent; it was doing its best, poor thing, but it was the other side of the bedroom and behind a curtain so I can’t blame it for not waking me. (Or, spookily, perhaps it did; perhaps my symbiosis with my phone is more powerful than I realise?)

Anyhoo…

I had expected to have some kind of faux-cheery interaction with one or more of the other guests of the place, but when we got down to the lounge at quarter to six, it was silent and everyone seemed to have taken their breakfasts already. So we ate what we fancied of our breakfast pack, left as promised, and were on the road at, oh goodness me, 0625. Being able to appreciate the dawn colours seems to be becoming a bit of a habit.

Before long, the road gave way to a track

and we carried on, past a Memorial to Nossa Senhora do Socorro

and on to another forestry track, where Eucalyptus once again figured strongly, although not, as far as we could tell, in a programmatic way.

The track led us eventually back on to the major N1 road at Albergaria’s new town, Albergaria-a-Nova, where we passed an albergue which gave us a useful status check on our walk.

So: we’re over half way there, then!

The N1 is not a rewarding road to walk on, as it features a lot of heavy traffic, but we trudged along, passing the occasional attractive tile work

(I hesitate to call it an azulejo, as it hasn’t much blue in it); an attractive modern church

at which Jane scored us another selo; a modern-looking lavodouro

and a place which said it was “from pilgrims for pilgrims”

but which was closed, so not much use for us pilgrims, then. For the last couple of these photos, we’d actually diverged from the N1 onto a parallel minor road. We thought we saw another misty morning scene

until the drifting smell told us that this was smoke from a fire, which, of course, we hoped was intentional. By this stage we’d done about 10km, i.e. half the day’s walking and so it was jolly well time for a coffee. There was a place back on the N1 so we cut back to it.

It was a bit transport caff-y, but we got a decent hot coffee and a chocolate salami each, which I hoped would boost my somewhat flagging energy levels (it seemed to work, by the way). Then we carried on along the N1 and rejoined the Caminho a bit further up, crossing the railway at a level crossing to do so, and then walking alongside the actual railway track for a while.

I have to say that I’m rather glad it’s a very, very minor rail route, as a passing train might have meant us making an undignified dive down the bank to avoid being flattened.

Most of the rest of the walk was on quiet roads: past an attractively decorated school in Curval;

seeing a very substantial mansion in the middle distance;

passing another, seemingly less well-used lavadouro;

and a distinctive church, the Igreja Matriz do Pinheiro da Bemposta.

Although we didn’t pass this church directly, we did walk through Pinheiro de Bemposta, which has some handsome buildings

and then reached a bridge crossing the N1.

The peregrina you can see on the bridge is actually the 86-year old Louise from Pennsylvania, who had started out very early this morning and was walking at her own steady pace. We had a quick chat with her as she rested in the outskirts of the old village of Bemposta. She would be walking a longer distance than us, a 30km stage to Arrifana; clearly made of sterner stuff than us.

The old village of Bemposta has a considerable history of which the village is proud; the handsome buildings in the short stretch of its main street are described in info boards which give a description of the distinctive characteristics of each of the buildings.

The last photo is unidentified by info board, but I thought it was a handsome one.

Exiting Bemposta through the arch gave us a good view of the distant countryside

though actually a less uplifting one of the nearer landscape.

The rest of our walk was through various conurbations before got to our destination.  We went down through Besteiros, with more pointy roof features

some attractive tilework

and this handsome place

with its symbolic guard cat on the lych gate.

Our track took us back perilously close to the railway again,

and down a pleasant cobbled path

where we got our first view of Oliveira de Azeméis at the top of the hill we would eventually have to climb.

The track went over a small river. On the bridge was Senhor da Ponte, Our Lord of the Bridge.

We had to cross the railway again, via a very informal route

which was pretty much at the start of the final climb towards Oliveira de Azeméis. It was a 100m ascent in about 1.5km, so not desperately steep, but the weather was hot enough by now – around 30°C – that I for one was exceedingly glad when I finally tottered to the top. We then had a short walk through the town, which is a handsome place, nicely kept tidy, with some striking buildings

touches of prettification

and a generally refined air along the main street.

Fine houses such as those above were built at the end of the 19th century by former emigrants returning with new-found wealth from Brazil; they are known as casas dos brasileiros.

Our hotel, the Hotel Dighton,

had many things to recommend it, such as air-conditioning, a room they already had available for us and a restaurant that would serve lunch until 3pm. Our bags hadn’t yet arrived, but it was anyway lovely to be able to relax for a while before going for lunch. And it was a Nice Lunch; a Very Nice Lunch. It’s a very old school, quite posh restaurant, with proper service (they’d pour one’s wine for one, if one drank wine), linen napkins, 70s-tastic music, a splendid azulejo and a chef in charge of a great open-fire grill

who assiduously attended to his grill, fanning it to keep it Just So.

He produced a wonderful grouper steak for Jane and some very succulent lamb for me, and we really enjoyed it; for me, probably the best meal I’ve had so far in Portugal – and there have been some good ones.

After lunch (and the eventual arrival of our suitcases) we thought we’d take a short walk around the town. It has a huge variety of churches, but the Mother Church is a fine building

with an impressive azulejo-surrounded portal.

Inside

there is a very substantial Eucharistic Throne.

It’s slightly odd that we keep finding these thrones when they’re something that the Papacy banned centuries ago and which we’d thought were kept largely out of sight.

Near the church is a Roman momument,

the Marco Miliário da Milha XII (12th Mile Milestone), which marked Mile 12 of the ancient Roman military road that connected Coimbra to Gaia in eastern Portugal. It was originally erected between 23 AD and 24 AD during the reign of the Roman Emperor Tiberius, and was originally discovered in the late 18th century in the nearby parish of Ul.

Having taken a swift coffee (OK, and pastries) at a lovely confeitaria, we finished our walk by visiting the fountain at the bottom of our hotel’s street.

and then headed back to the hotel to rest and recharge for the next day.

Tomorrow’s destination is Malaposta (the opposite, we suppose of the Bemposta we visited today?) which is just 16km away – a relatively short walk on a day which is forecast to be a positively frigid 27°C. This means we can even indulge ourselves in a hotel breakfast, which should be a solid start to the day. I’ll report on it in due course.