SEAWEED SMELLS AND COASTAL FARMLANDS

DAY 17
​VILA DO CONDE - ESPOSENDE

A really good nights sleep followed by a delicious, comprehensive breakfast at our simply outstanding hotel spoil, prepared us well for another day traveling north up the Portuguese coastline.

Today however, was spent mostly in the interesting coastal farmlands, called Masseiras. These are large troughs hollowed out below the wind line, behind the dunes. They create a unique greenhouse effect for the planting of mostly vegetables. Seaweed is dried out on the beaches in large amounts and used as fertilizer for these troughs amongst other things.

Lots of Pilgrims en-route, the majority of whom started their Camino in Porto or just beyond. Oh and of course what would our day be if we did not bump into our Polish friends!

A buzzing agricultural community farm these masseiras, and this creates such a vibe for kilometers along this beautiful coastline

We eventually rested for lunch around the 20km mark, in the welcome shade of beautiful trees fringing the roadside.

A relatively short 6 or so kms including crossing the Cávado River into our final destination for today, Esposende with its mouth that feels like the Kromme river, at least to me it does !

With the washing the clothes done, a lovely hot bath, and a quick rest it’s now off to find the local store for water and tomorrow’s supplies.

What a lovely day’s Trekkin4Trees 🌲💚🌳