A race against the clock

On the Caminho from Tomar to Alvaiázere

After five days of walking it was so nice to take a day off. I made myself comfortable in the hostel and started the day slowly. There was plenty of time in the afternoon to explore the sights. I sat on my bed, organizing my things when I got talking to another pilgrim who had planned to give his injured foot a rest today. We’d heard that there was a travel ban coming up, but didn’t really have any details. The man manning the reception this morning joined our conversation and gave us some advice. Basically, there was a long weekend coming up and the government wanted to prevent people from spreading COVID, so they put a travel ban in place. You couldn’t leave your municipality during that time, so it would be better for me to spend this time somewhere interesting.

I still had 95 km to go until Coimbra and would only come across small towns along the way. It was Wednesday, almost midday, and the travel ban would start from Friday night. My brain fired up its turbo engine and assessed the situation. It came down to 2 options: starting to walk today after all, or making 2 days of over 40 kilometers. While I was mulling things over in my head I already started picking up my semi-dry laundry from the line and put all my gear in my bag again. When I saw my fellow pilgrim again I told him: “I think I might start walking soon.” “I think you’ve already made up your mind.” he said, “I’ll do the same.”

At 12 o’clock I left the hostel in Tomar. I had about 6 hours of daylight to cross 32 km’s. Today would be challenging, but I was filled with adrenaline because of the last minute decision. I power walked out of the city and almost forgot to look back. Tomar is incredibly beautiful, with the imposing Convent of Christ on the top of the hill. I was a bit sad to leave without seeing more of the city, but my mission had started and I directed my full focus towards my goal: reaching Alvaiázere before dark.

It turned out to be a beautiful route today. To leave Tomar I followed a small path along the river and immediately felt at ease with my decision. Soon I walked passed small olive groves and through tiny villages. I saw an old couple working on the olive trees. They said something, but I didn’t understand. Their active dog started running towards me, keeping me away from the scene. I was just passing on the road, and the olive trees stood on raised land behind a little stone wall. The woman kept shouting at the dog to return, laughing because he wouldn’t listen. But the dog was on a mission and even bit my shoe. It was great to see the friendly old couple and smiles that appeared on their faces as they saw me, but I was glad to get away.

The landscape had gotten so much hillier than it had been before. Occasionally I was surprised with a steep path to climb. I barely saw any cars, even though I walked on rural roads a lot. They meandered through the villages, but even there I didn’t see much life. At some point, I was given two choices and it completely startled me. I could not make a decision, even though the two routes would eventually join again. It just completely threw me off my game! I ended up choosing the shorter, but harder option and looked up at a seemingly never ending hill. It slowly zigzagged up through the forest. I repeated my mantra: “I can do this. My feet can do this. My head can do this. My legs can do this. So I can do this!”

The climb was totally worth it. I ended up on a rural road high up on the hillside, overlooking the valley. There were some houses here and there, but there wasn’t much traffic. The view was simply spectacular. I saw small clusters of houses spread out over the green landscape. Closer to my destination it got even better. Ok, I’d had to follow a boring main road for a while, but then enjoyed the last 1,5 hours a lot when I passed by some beautiful farms and houses that looked more like cottages. They had perfect wooden fences around their gardens with orange trees and veggie patches and there were even some cobbled roads with small stone walls alongside of it, with a mismatch of stones of all sizes.

I was feeling euphoric, knowing I would reach my destination soon. The adrenaline had worn off and my feet and legs started aching. I’d been walking fast and had barely taken time for breaks, so the last 4 km were tough. I started counting the side roads I passed, counting down until I reached Alvaiázere. It had started to rain and slowly got darker and darker. At the very start of town I caught up to a Spanish pilgrim I’d met before. I startled her since she wasn’t expecting me to walk today, but explained my reasoning and crazy decision.

We both stayed in the same hotel. I don’t think there was much choice here. However, instead of giving us rooms in the hotel, they brought us to a house. It seemed to be their house. We each got a room and were shown a bathroom. At 8PM we could come to the restaurant for dinner. It was strange. My room still had their wedding photos and things inside. Perhaps they were renovating the hotel? Amazing that they trusted us enough to let us stay here. At 8 we arrived at the restaurant in the fashionable combo of socks in flip-flops and were surprised to find a lot of other people there. They took good care of us. I got meat for a family on my plate! With a full belly I crawled into bed. I had done it. I was back on track to reach Coimbra before the travel ban. What an eventful day!