And this Monday, April 7, we went another 30 km, up the mountain, in very hot weather. A hard day for the group of hikers who are making the 7th Crossing of the Via Algarviana:
We woke up at 7:00 in the morning, with the rooster crowing. Yesterday it was 30 km, today another 30 km… Do you remember that president of a Portuguese bank who said: “Hey, hang on, hang on!”? Well, the guys held out!
In this section, the group consisted of 10 adults – two more hikers joined us, a German who had just arrived from her country and a Portuguese woman – and the three kids from yesterday, who once again made a large part of the journey.
We crossed four streams, where the waters literally parted: a man who is a man does not take off his hiking boots and crosses anyway. The women stop, take off their shoes, change their boots for shoes to walk in the water, cross, dry their little feet, put their shoes back on…and the men, on the other side of the river, are waiting.
We made a technical stop in Romeira, 11 kilometers from the end. And then we destroyed the stock of minis from the cafézinho da terra.
There were only a few kilometers to go and, despite the heat, it looked like everything was going to be all right. But these last 11 km were tough, always uphill, with the heat tightening. What helped us were the minis that had allowed us to reset the fluid level…
At a bend in the path, you could see down there, in the distance, the white spot of Portimão and the blue of the sea, promising freshness.
In short: we arrived at Marmelete all broken.
Today we are going to stay overnight at the Casa do Povo in Marmelete. And tomorrow, the 8th, it will be a shorter 14,7 km trip to Monchique. Let's see how it goes…
Veja here all the photos.
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