Day 26 – to Fafião

A rain day and a slow start on my part. I finished a book of short stories, the Weird Tales of William Hope Hodgson, an American who was prolific in the horror genre from the early 1900s. I read quite a bit of this sort of thing, it is in the British Library Tales of the Weird Series, and he is very good, an imagination that at times must have worried even him, and the ability to get it down on paper. A review tomorrow.

I emerged from the van just after 10, in steady rain, but I couldn’t leave it much longer, as I wanted to move on today. Having seen hardly anyone for four days, by chance a British couple from Berwick on Tweed were passing, Lee and Emma, and their dog. They told me they had a similar self-built van parked down the road. I saw the exterior at least later, it is a sprinter in an attractive light green with a black bonnet. We walked together for a half hour or so, but they had full waterproofs on and we’re heading up to the mountain, the route I took on my first day here.

I was running low on supplies, so filled up at the small supermarket in Geres. I don’t think I’ll come across anything with that sort of stock for a week.

Then I headed to Fafião, and found a park up at the football field just out of town. It’s fine while the rain is here, and besides, I need a decent 4G signal for the rugby tomorrow.

Later in the afternoon, as the rain still hadn’t abated, we walked into the town. It’s a traditional Portuguese cobbled community, but clearly popular in the tourist season, with a fair bit of accommodation, and a few bars and restaurants, two of which were open. The first one I tried had a very wet outdoor sitting area and wasn’t suitable. The second, Fojo de Lobos, or ‘The Pack of Wolves’, had a covered outdoor area, and more, some decent craft beer. I got chatting to the barman, he was a keen sportsman, and setting out as a trail runner. I did my usual, trying to pass the message around Portugal that they have qualified for the Rugby World Cup, but it wasn’t long, and we lapsed onto Sporting Lisbon’s defeat of Arsenal last night.