Starting the Caminho

We left the Quinta da Malta - taking the packed lunch in a monogrammed bag and after a taxi transfer to the Santuario Nossa Senhora da Aparecida (a place of pilgrimage) we followed the Caminho de Santiago for the rest of the day. Fairly gentle and flat meeting a few fellow walkers en route who were mostly intending to walk a little further than us that day - onto Ponte da Lima - we were taking 2 days over that.
I think we got to our stop that night early afternoon Quinta do Sobreiro - we were the only guests that evening but were well looked after. It was a very hot day so we stayed in the shade the rest of the day.

An introductory walk

The initial walk was a gentle affair around Durrães as far as the Ponte das Tabuas - a bridge on the Caminho (pilgrim) trail to Santiago - a route we met a few times during the holiday!

It was a gentle walk I think we regularly beat the Inntravel timings by quite a bit this week. We were back at the Quinta da Malta for lunch and enjoyed a gentle afternoon with another bottle of local wine! We also had a look around the farm associated with the manor house with lots of organic produce which was used extensively in the food. We were a day behind some other walkers and during the afternoon some others arrived who then were a day behind us. Another relaxed evening meal before thinking about the first transfer walk.