Day 10 - Vale Seco to Cercal do Alentejo

# Pasteis de Nata: 0 (again!), Distance Walked: 23km, # Floors Climbed: 122

Today was a tough day.  I was woken at 5am by the farm's rooster even though it was well before dawn.  He didn't shut up until well after 8am.  Why someone hasn't strangled him before now is a mystery.

I started my walk for the day by backtracking about 500m to a bar to get some breakfast.  There were several men proping up the bar drinking coffee in silence.  The woman running the place was leisurely making rolls with cheese for 2 of the men.  When she finally finished and noticed me, I ordered the same.  A cheese sandwich in Portugal is just that - a roll with cheese in it, nothing else.  The bread was Good though.  Even supermarket bread rolls are Good here.  There were pastries for sale but they'd come from a supermarket so I gave them a miss.  I planned on having a filling lunch.

I took the morning walk at a leisurely pace as I intended having lunch at a village at the 9km mark and didn't want to arrive before midday.   I'd been lucky with the weather yesterday - clear skies and mild temperatures.  I wasn't so lucky this morning.   There was one rain cloud that gently drizzled on everything below it, which included me.  It was heading south, but so was I.  I got damp rather than wet but still it was a bit annoying.

I got to the village just before midday to find both cafes shut.  One looked as if it had gone out of business but the other was just shut -- it still had chairs and tables set up outside.  I waited until after midday but there were no signs of life.  I had to settle for museli bars and chocolate-coated marzipan that I had stashed in my back pack.  This rather meagre lunch, combined with my meagre breakfast, left me rather hungry.

I picked up the pace to cover the remaining 14km to Cercal do Alentejo.  According to Google maps there were at least a dozen restaurants there, along with 4 supermarkets and several pastry shops.  The clouds had cleared so I got sunburnt on this section of the route.  I had remembered to put plenty of sunscreen on my face but neglected to put any on my arms so they are now cherry red.

The route today was mainly through farmland.  Plenty of cattle - both steers and dairy cows, along with goats, several free range black pigs this region is famous for, an apple orchard and endless fields of wheat.  I didn't really appreciate the views as all I could think of was when I would get something to eat.  The goats were cute though.

The waymarking wasn't as good today.  There were several intersections where there was no indication of which route to take.  My personal favourite was a crossroads where each path forward was barred by a electric fence.  On close inspection the "wire" on one fence was actually just string, so that was the path to take.

When I got to Cercal I stopped at the first cafe I found and had the largest piece of cake they had for sale.  It was a very light, very moist sponge cake that didn't taste of anything much but just then it was the best piece of cake I had ever eaten.

I then headed to my hotel.  It isn't actually a hotel but a guest house/hostel.  There is no reception.  Instead, I was given a code to the key safe outside the front door.  That got me key that got me in the building.  My suitcase was in the lobby but there was no indication which room was mine.  Again, there were several rooms with keys in the door.  I checked them all out and one had a voucher for breakfast for one at a nearby cafe.  I assumed that was for me and settled in.  I'm not sure what to do with the keys when I leave.  I guess I leave the front door key in the room and the room key in the door to the room.

When I was heading to my hotel I ran into Tammy & Bob.  They'd arrived earlier, as their hotel last night was further down the trail.  They told me they ended up walking an extra 5km after leaving me yesterday searching for their hotel as the signage wasn't good.  It had provided them with a packed lunch though.

For dinner I went to a place just up the road that was recommended by Ricardo as serving traditional local dishes.  The nonna who runs it speaks no languages other than Portuguese but was very kind and friendly.  I ended up with local pork which had been cubed and fried and was served with lemon and pickled vegetables.  It came with rice and chips - as is standard here - but the rice had been dressed with olive oil and some bitter green veg finely chopped.  The chips were almost as good as Grandma made.  To add to the veg content of my meal I also had a side salad which was cos lettuce, tomato and salad onion.  I washed this down with 1/4 litre of the house red, which I choose to believe came from Uncle Luigi's neighbour's farm and not chateau cardboard.  

I also had dessert.  Ordering this was a challenge as there was a group of 15 people eating at the restaurant who were all part of some tour group.  They were talking so loudly there was a wall of sound.  When nonna was trying to tell me what the desserts were all I caught was pudding something, chocolate mousse and then something.  My food Portuguese is pretty good but the group was just so loud.  I had the pudding something which turned out to be the local equivalent of creme caramel.

It was all very Good.  Plus I got to eat all my calories for the day in one meal.  I'm now digesting like an overstuffed snake.

Tomorrow night I get to stay in a hotel with a reception and a breakfast room.  I won't know what to do with myself.