My legs ache

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18th April

So up & mustered for 10am, 12 of us plus the lady owner. All Dutch except us & a German couple. Introduced ourselves which seemed a bit ‘Ramblers’ to me but all smashing people. Off in an ancient Range Rover to a nearby town, round a couple of little streets & off up the mountain. We walked using a very old Roman path comprised of huge rocks basically which were uncut & we could see ruts in stone from the carts over the centuries. With a couple of small rest breaks we walked for over 2 hours to the top & thank goodness it wasn’t in the heat of yesterday – today was 21* but overcast. On the top it was a lot cooler; a couple of us were only wearing a t-shirt so we didn’t hang around long after lunch in the rocks.

One chap who looked like Michael Palin & had such an infectious laugh used to be a language teacher & with his wife had sold up on retirement & bought some land. They thought it was 1.5 hectares of mountain but the legal documents said 6.5, or roughly 16 acres! They had a house built; she now sculpts & he paints in oils - and he translates Dutch poetry into Portuguese (why?!)

Another couple post retirement, had cycled from their home in Holland to Rome! They had retired early but even so. One lady had such a good sense of humour & we had great laugh – I even pulled her leg about shaving her husband’s head...All in all a terrific day including a heavy downpour near the car but no-one minded as we were all so warm. Back home & to the bar for a communal drink.

Rieca, the camp owner, is going to help us tomorrow with the phone call to the police before we leave for Vila Real. She can speak 5 languages....smarty pants

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