T3:E4 – Vila Nova da Rainha>>Valada
I made peace with trains. To go from Alverca to the beginning of the stage, I paid one euro. While I was waiting at the station. I had the added bonus of a nice old lady wishing me bon voyage with a big smile. There was a train that gave me a whistle in greeting. It felt good!
Now let's go to the stage, which started at the Vila Nova da Rainha station, where I took a road that always ran alongside the railway. I made the stop at Espadanal de Azambuja and arrived at Azambuja itself.
The road was a bit boring, but considering that the alternative was to take the EN3 (the books still indicate this, but the apps are now up to date), it's a good thing.
On the road, I passed by an open gate where three large dogs were resting. One of them even stole, but only to mark a position.
I take a few more steps, and all three of them are suddenly on their feet and barking behind me. I continued to walk slowly (if I were a dog I would have my tail tucked between my legs) but in the end it wasn't me. The animals had detected that, in a car far away, the owner (?) was coming and they were the reception committee. But scared...
Then, he went on ahead, taking care to comply with the indication “the gate is to close please”, which is gladly done to avoid the aforementioned EN3.
Once in Azambuja, I was passing by the Municipal Museum Sebastião Mateus Arenque and I couldn't resist visiting it. It is a modern, pleasant museum that portrays the people of the land well. I lost (gained) some time, but these things are also made on the Way.
On leaving the city, there were some tiles on a wall where “the owner of this farm wishes the pilgrims good luck”. I thanked him silently and started down an extensive bike path / pedestrian path that then connected to another road. Here I entered the agricultural part of the journey. It was marshes, ditches with water and dark brown earth.
Lots of tractors working and lots of dust in the air. But be careful that the tractors here are real, not like the ones down there. These are so big that the guys have to lift their heads high if they want to see the driver. Behind the tractors they were plowing, there were “herds” of Cattle Egrets, except in one case where a score of birds of prey roamed around. Respect, even among birds, is very beautiful...
I passed by two airfields, the one at Azambuja and the one at Quinta do Alqueidão, which I presume must also be linked to agriculture.
Following the dirt road, there was tarmac, with the exception of a small section at the end, so new that it was not mentioned anywhere. It can be seen that local authority staff are now making pedestrian paths at full force.
I arrived at the hostel and it looks like the UN. So far, I've seen people from Spain, Italy, Germany, Canada and more are expected. Algarve and Portuguese, just me. The language in which (more or less) we understand each other is English.
I already took a shower in the only bathroom there, chose the bottom bunk, washed the day's clothes, which were left to dry in the street and came to write this article here on the river beach of Valada, which also has a panoramic swing for the Tagus (a fisherman came by saying he caught a catfish weighing more than 10 kg…).
It's fine, but it was 23 km of road and tar with the heat biting...
Read the other episodes of Season 3 of The Walker saga:
Episode 1 - Next to the Lisbon Cathedral, Season 3 of the Walker saga begins
Episode 2 - Today we don't have leatherettes
Episode 3 - Misadventures of a man from the Algarve on the laps of the big city
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