Saturday, June 11, turned out to be our most frenetic day on this Camino. Making our lodging reservation in the middle of the night left insufficient time to arrange the luggage transfer with Top Santiago. That meant we had to walk to the Casas da Quinta de Cancela in Balugães, check in, and then taxi back to Alojamento Flora to pick up our bags by 2 p.m., when the albergue closed for the afternoon. Can you say: pressure?
It didn’t help that we faced our hottest day yet, 33 C. (91 F.) by the afternoon, and the walk included some elevations, such as a 241-meter climb near the town of Portela de Tamel. We hit the trail at 8:45 a.m. resolved to keep a steady pace, with few breaks.
Despite its “forced march” qualities, the day’s walk began on an amusing note as we soon found ourselves following behind a scout troop of boys and girls marching along with fake spears. We assumed the spears had something to do with the religious festivals, but Google reports that neither St. Anthony nor St. John suffered martyrdom via spearing.
Following the climb to Tamel, we stopped at a 17th century Capela Nossa Senhora do Rosário da Portela (Chapel of Our Lady of Portela) for a brief rest in the stone-cool interior. After that, we encountered flatter ground and more open countryside, with lots of corn fields and grape trellises. We also noticed many blue hydrangea bushes, which seem to be popular in the region.
As we entered Balugães around 1, we heard a loudspeaker somewhere across the fields broadcasting very loud Portuguese pop music, with lots of horns and accordions. We heard it again the next morning when we left so we assumed that this too was festival-related.
Normally, arriving at our lodging for the day would have represented an opportunity to unrest and unwind. Not the case today. After dropping off our day pack at the reception, we asked the woman on duty to call a taxi, since we needed to return to Alojamento Flora immediately to retrieve our heavy bags. We also needed to replenish our cash at an ATM, which proved more difficult than expected. It took stops at three ATMs because the first two were out of cash, likely related — again! — to the St. Anthony festival, or perhaps just a wild Friday night.
We got to Alojamento Flora just before 2, retrieved our bags (thank you, Marco!), and then drove back to Casas da Quinta de Cancela to finish checking in. We immediately liked this former estate whose outbuildings had been converted into lodgings surrounded by gardens and vineyards.
For our late lunch/early dinner, we were able to purchase some grilled chicken and bread at a takeout place, the Taberna de Aldeia, located about 5 minutes away, dining out on our balcony, a welcome end to a hectic day.
Two Clines Traveling 