Day 3-Vila do Conde to Arcos
Despite ongoing frustrations with the tour agency, today was amazing and the Camino has become the world’s greatest adventure game for grownups. Read maps, look for arrows to follow, eat stuff, look at really old architecture, collect stamps, take pictures, climb things. It’s the European equivalent to living in the African bush and I am totally enamoured with it!
Today’s adventure game was to get from Vila do Conde on the coastal route, over to Arcos on the inland route. The outdated guidebook pages the agency sent me said, like the coastal route, that it’s not waymarked. After talking with the hotel reception in Vila do Conde though, it seemed as if there were some marks and at the worst case if I got lost, I could just keep along the river and gone south to pick up the original inland route. The sun was shining, the sky was a brilliant blue, and the forecast said 0% chance of rain, so I was up for the challenge.
After crossing the river and turning inland along the stream, finally I started to get a taste of real solitude, as the road twisted along the river and and houses became further apart. The dangerous aspect of solitude is it allows the mind to wander, into sometimes the dangerous territory of questioning one’s self. My thoughts ranged from ‘how am I going to pay rent on the Tokyo apartment?’ to ‘is it really ok that I’m not interested in seeing all the churches?’, and then even deeper into how to let go of my need to control by doing everything myself and delegate more. Something that I’d tried to start accomplishing by using a tour agency, who ended up reinforcing why I prefer to plan and execute everything myself. Some self-scolding and cursing came a few minutes later when I found myself at a junction that was not waymarked, with cars whizzing by, and unable to figure out on the map where I was. Fortunately though, I was stopped short of starting to go down a very frustrating mental path when a parade of tiny Carnival revelers came out of nowhere!
I couldn’t stop myself from grinning and returning their waves and shouts, and from there, finding the right direction was no longer about following a clear path, it was more that this was a giant playing field and I was in it to win it. It’s a game, and it’s me against myself. From then on, my mind relaxed and my body followed. Up hills, through alleyways, over a couple bridges, under giant eucalyptus trees, into a historical burial ground. It also seemed to be a burial ground for dead toilets.
Finally for the first time the trail went into farmland and joined the original historic Camino, where I placed my first stone of sorrow onto a pile.
Traditions and rituals like these are something that I love, and placing a stone of my own felt really good. I stood there for a few moments contemplating all the other stones and wondering about the people who placed them and what their sorrows were.
10 minutes later I was in Arcos and at the wonderful Quinta San Miguel, which is everything that I’d imagined it would be, with the ever so charming Antonio, who gave me a copy of the Bierley’s guide.
Tomorrow, onwards to Barcelos and Carnival!
Notes about Vila do Conde-Arcos
-The route I took is in the guide, and is a great way to connect from the coastal to inland route. It is not waymarked so well between Vila do Conde and Junquiera, but it’s fairly straight forward
-There is a section of N-306 that is road with no shoulder and does not have good sightline. Take care of the high speed traffic going through there!
-After crossing the A-7, turn right onto a dirt road immediately after the overpass to find the ancient burial mounds.
-The pathway from the mounds leads to open farmland with tractor trails as the road. This takes you through a forested area which then joins up with the historic inland route to Arcos and is well marked.
camino de uchuujin 