How all of life should be

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Well today we passed the halfway point of the camino and it feels like we at starting to get into the groove: blisters are becoming callouses, those optional things in our packs have either turned out to be vital or have been ditched. We are a well oiled machine in getting up dressed and packed each morning and out on the road.

Today we saw the first two Pilgrims heading in the other direction towards Fatima. The second of these was a grizzled gentleman and as he passed me in the middle of an industrial estate, a strange thing happened: a man raced out of a factory and shouted at us both. At first I thought he was upset with grizzly pilgrim, but in fact he wanted us to go with him into the factory- which, it transpired was a grappa (or local equivalent) distillery. The man had prepared packs for passing pilgrims consisting of bottles of water and apples and gave them to the three of us.

He stamped our credentials and we went on our separate ways touched and amazed by the hospitality of the Portuguese.

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