Tag Archives: Bicycle

Portuguese Way: Introduction (Camino de Santiago)

This post is "natively" only available in English.

Between the 25th of August and the 4th of September 2019 I cycled nearly 660 Km on the Portuguese Way of the Camino de Santiago, from Lisbon to Santiago de Compostela in Spain.

Map of Paulo's Camino Portuguese
Map of Paulo’s Camino Portuguese

I recorded a short vlog about this trip a week before I left. In this video I explained my motivation to do this pilgrimage, so I will not repeat myself and go straight to the point with this introduction.

Upon my return, I’ve asked a few friends that have, and have not, done pilgrimages before, what would they find useful in this introduction and they asked me 7 questions in return.

I have answered all 7 questions in the video below, together with a photo show of the 210 pictures I liked most out of the thousands I took during the journey. I’ve added them to a photo gallery on the bottom of this post, in case you want to see them in a higher resolution.

If you don’t like to read, I essentially talk through these questions in the video, but in the text below I added a little more detail.

The 7 questions I got were: (Click to jump to the answer)

  1. How long did the pilgrimage take? (Time)
  2. How much did you spend? (Expenses, Cost)
  3. Was finding the way easy? (Navigation)
  4. What were the worst experiences you had on the Camino?
  5. What were the best experiences you had on the Camino?
  6. How Safe is the Camino?
  7. Where did you sleep? (accommodation)

Click here to jump to the picture gallery.


    1. How long did the pilgrimage take?
      For me it took 11 days! Started from the Sé Cathedral in Lisbon on Sunday, the 25th of August, around 12 noon and arrived in Santiago on Wednesday, the 4th of September, around 4:00pm.
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    2. How much did you spend?
      I spent €685.42 in the entire journey. That includes all expenses from the moment I arrived at London Heathrow Airport, on my way to Lisbon, to the moment I left Santiago de Compostela. It also includes the fees I had to pay to the airlines (TAP and Iberia) for transporting my bike. As you may not live in London, or in the UK, your journey to Portugal and from Spain may be quite different than mine, so if you only count the pilgrimage days, the total expense was €451.14 and as it took me 11 days to reach Santiago, the average per day was €41.01.
      I’ve created a Google Sheets page containing all my expenses, as well as the telemetry from my Garmin Devices, such as distances travelled, altimetry, average heart rate and so an.

      I believe it is entirely possible to do the Camino spending much less than I did, but perhaps you’ll have to limit yourself to eating only 2 meals a day, cook your own food and just walk and sleep. If you plan to do the Camino with as little as possible, I would recommend that you reserve a minimum of €30 a day for your journey.
      If you are looking to stay at “Donativos” (hostels where you pay just as much as you can) or accommodation under €12 a night you will find it somewhat challenging, especially in Portugal, as the number of beds in such places is small and fills up quite quickly. The cheapest albergue I stayed in these 11 days charged €6 a night. It was in Briallos (ES) and it was a publicly owned “Xunta de Galicia” albergue. Keep in mind there is a price rise expected for all “Xunta” albergues in 2020 (I think they’ll go up to €9 a night). I am not aware of any accommodation under €12 a night in Portugal. The “Casa do Sardão” hostel, was one of the most typical and attractive albergues I stayed in Portugal and it charges pilgrims €12 for a bed (well worth it though).

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    3. Navigation: Was finding the way easy?
      The answer to this question is not a yes or no. In Lisbon there are very few signs pointing the way. I found only 3 and 2 were very faint. Signage improves after Coimbra, but you’ll still find stages where signage is excellent and others where signage is poor. After Porto, signage tends to be very good, however, if you are cycling you have to keep in mind the original Camino is meant for walking, not cycling, so there are signs pointing to ways you cannot (or should not) ride on your bike.
      I am also almost certain there were arrows pointing to disused paths of the way as the Camino appears to have changed over the years. I frequently stopped to ask for directions and some locals said a few times, pointing with their fingers, “it used to go that way, but now it goes this way”. Remember that, generally, walkers go against traffic and cyclists move with traffic. That means if you are cycling, most signs will be on the opposite side to you and they are typically small and not always easy to see. Taking into consideration you have to be aware of the traffic around you, finding a little sign, sometimes 20 – 30 m away, takes a lot of attention and good eyesight. It becomes a game of “find the yellow arrow”. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. Considering the number of times I got lost and had to rely on Google Maps or the Map loaded on my Garmin Edge 820, my route was actually pretty close to the “official” route of the Camino, if there is such a thing.
      My recommendation is that you search for the GPX file of the Portuguese Way (I found this one wich became my reference route), download it, open it with Google Earth (or other such software) and study the way. That helped me find the way out of Lisbon with relative ease. I will also post copies of my own route in the blog, but they will contain the mistakes I’ve made. There is a gap of about 10 Km in my GPX route, as having the navigation feature always on in the Garmin caused the device to consume a lot more battery and that caught me by surprise as I was about 10 Km from Azinhaga on the 2nd day of the Camino and the Garmin Edge suddenly “died” (my Garmin Forerunner watch had already died earlier that day). In my usual bike touring rides the battery of the Garmin Edge 820 I use lasts for at least a couple of days, but without the use of the navigation feature.

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    4. What were the worst experiences you had on the Camino?
      There were moments of frustration, no doubt, but I honestly cannot complain. I have not suffered any injury, nor had a mechanical fault that prevented me from continuing, nor was a victim of any “bad intentions” like theft, aggression, etc. I think if any of these things had happened, I would have a good reason to highlight them here.
      With that in mind, some of the lighter frustrations came from…

      – The airlines that damaged my bike in transportation and charged me extra to transport them on top of what I had already paid for luggage;
      – My own mistakes;
      – The amount of urban traffic in some places and
      – The poor signage in others. 

      I also found it difficult to find pilgrim accommodation in some places after 4:00pm and had to resort to staying in more expensive places, but that would only have been a real problem if I could not afford them. Since I gave myself a comfortable budget to do this pilgrimage, this was not an issue for me. I was, however, committed to try to do the Camino as much as possible in a “pilgrim’s honoured” way.
      Some frustration also came from the challenging type of terrain I had to face with a heavy bike and the fact I was somewhat unprepared for that level of difficulty. Again, this is no one’s fault, but my own. The Camino, following the yellow arrows, is very challenging for cyclists. It’s absolutely not meant for touring bikes, so I would recommend you evaluate this well before you leave. If you plan to follow the yellow arrows on a bike, a sturdy mountain bike is highly desirable. Also, from Lisbon to about Coimbra, the Camino is very urban in most parts. Done on busy roads and going through industrial areas. Not exactly the notion of nature’s paradise one would expect.
      This was also one cycling trip in which I got very frustrated with my tech, much of it due to my own fault as well. These include video recording hiccups, which meant I have no footage for a portion of the Camino or when both my Garmin devices ran out of battery as I explained before (“Strava cyclists” will understand the frustration).
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    5. What were the best experiences you had on the Camino?
      Honestly, just doing it! It’s not the destination, it’s the journey. I loved the views of the many places I’ve been through and the people I met with whom I had a chance to have a conversation with, in the hostels I stayed and even if just cycling very slowly alongside them for a few minutes. If any of them is reading this, I am so grateful for the opportunity to get to know you, hear your stories, your reasons for doing the Camino and other experiences you had as pilgrims.
      Some of the best experiences also came from the most challenging ones. The times I looked up a hill and thought I would not be able to climb it up, but then I did. Obviously hills are supposed to be hard to climb, but the reward when you get up there is not just the feeling of accomplishment, but the visual delights of the views. Other worthwhile experiences include things like the sounds and smells of the forests I cycled through or the coastal paths I cycled by.
      And then, there was also the simple culinary delights of a 3 course pilgrims menu, typically for less than €10 in some places, which often included excellent local wines. In Carreço, Portugal, the pilgrim’s menu at Sergio’s included a starter, a main course, desert and a full bottle of white all for €8.50. A pilgrimage is certainly not a dream holiday for many, but then a pilgrimage is often only a holiday in the sense that those who, like me, live busy professional lives, can only do them during their holidays, hence the reason young people on a gap year and retired people seem to be dominant on the Camino.
      People go on pilgrimage for a multitude of reasons, but certainly not to lay down and relax. It is quite demanding physically, even if you are fit and in a good state of health. The paths are more often than not full of sand, gravel, stones, mud and boulders which becomes especially difficult if you are climbing up or even going down steep hills.

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    6. How Safe is the Camino?
      All I can tell you is that I had no issues whatsoever in my Camino. There were moments I left my bike completely unattended with almost everything on it (with the exception of my documents, money and the more expensive electronic equipment). In some of these moments I locked the bike, like when I entered the Sé Cathedral in Lisbon and then at the Paroquia Dos Martires church as I was looking to buy a pilgrim’s credential which I had forgotten back home. In these moments the bike was outside on a very busy central location for at least 30 min and nothing was missing when I came back.
      I also felt safe cycling on the roads, despite the heavy traffic in places. There were a few exceptions in which I thought some drivers drove a bit too close for comfort, but in the vast majority of times the Portuguese and Spanish drivers respected a safe distance. I cannot stress enough though that some roads are really busy and you should always be careful, regardless if walking or cycling the Camino. Walkers will have to walk on roads and hard shoulders in several occasions too.
      Despite all of this, I can’t think of one moment in which I felt like I was in serious risk.

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    7. Where did you sleep? (Accommodation)
      The network of pilgrims’ hostels, or Albergues as they are known, is not as extensive in the Portuguese Way as it is on the French Way (from Saint Jean Pied de Port), yet that doesn’t mean it is not sufficient.
      I used 2 resources to find accommodation:

      1) Gronze.com: Probably one of the best online resources for all Caminos to Santiago. One catch is that the site is only available in Spanish, but you can use Google Translate to automatically (machine) translate the site. The site gives you all stages for all Caminos and a list of accommodations for each stage, which include not only pilgrims’ hostels, but hotels and other types of accommodation as well (camping areas, etc).

      2) A Google Sheet list of (currently) 536 places along the Portuguese Way of the Camino (all variants: Lisbon-Porto, Coastal, Central and Spiritual), created by a user named “Anonymous Goose”.This is a great resource, maintained by volunteers and frequently updated based on information received by pilgrims. The list gives you the phone numbers for all the places, in addition to estimated cost, number of beds, type of accommodation, website (when available) and physical address as well as recommendations. The list is extensive, but I printed it and used it together with the printed Gronze stages (only carried in my handlebar bag the sheets for the stages I was planning to do for that day).

      As far as my own experience goes, the places I stayed are all listed in the Google Sheets page I mentioned in question #2. I can only say that they were all clean, comfortable and functional, some even luxurious for pilgrimage standards. I am not going to say more than that as what you expect for your Camino might be very different from mine, but if you choose to stay in the same places I did, I can recommend all of them to you. Few important things to mention for cyclists, although this wasn’t an issue for me, not all places I stayed had a space to store the bike. I think I was lucky that in the places where that could have been a problem, I was the only cyclist that night, so it was always possible to find a little corner to leave the bike. For example in Coimbra I left the bike at the reception by the exit door of the hotel I stayed. If there were more bikes that night, that would have been a problem as the space was quite tight.Back to Top

So these are the 7 questions I received, but if I missed something you want to know, or if you have other questions or want more detail about my experiences on the Portuguese Way of the Camino de Santiago (while you wait for the Blog posts to be written and the videos to be published), just get in touch by leaving a comment here or message me through the contact form in the Blog.

Bom Caminho!  Buen Camino!

Picture Gallery.

Click on any picture for full detail

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Camino de Santiago: Here I come again (Portuguese Way)

Hello everyone!

For a while I’ve been wanting to record a video and write a post about my upcoming cycling pilgrimage on the Camino de Santiago, this time the Portuguese way to Santiago.

I’ve done the so called French Way between Saint Jean Pied de Port and Santiago de Compostela (and further to Fisterra) in 2015. As there are several “ways” to Santiago, there is still plenty to be explored and, as I have not done any touring in 2018, it was about time to get on the road (or track) with a bike again… for longer than the usual day trip.

I am not going to extend the writing here in this post too much, as I think I’ve said everything I wanted to say (and more) in the video below. it would be redundant, I think, to also write it all again here.

In the video I mentioned I was going to leave links to some online resources on the Portuguese Way, but I decided that, following the “index pages” I created for my previous 3 pilgrimages, I will also create an “index page” for the Portuguese way this week and put the links and online resources there. This post will be the first of hopefully many in that page.

I am travelling to Lisbon on Saturday, the 24th of August, and starting the journey by bike on Sunday the 25th. According to the web sites I looked, the distance varies depending on the path you take (even in this way of the Camino there are several options to choose). The most traditional way is apparently 620 Km long (385 miles), but I am still undecided if, from the city of Porto, I will follow the inland / central way or the coastal way (inclined to try the coastal way). In any case with my legendary navigation skills I wouldn’t be surprised if I end up doing closer to 700 Km on the bike to get to Santiago.

I am hoping the journey by bike will take 10 days and then have 2 days to rest, visit the wonderful city of Santiago again and pack my bike for the flight back to London.

It is very unlikely I will be posting here in the Blog during this journey. I am thinking of not even taking a computer with me, and I really hate having to type a lot in the small virtual keyboard of a phone. I will make every effort to post pictures in Facebook (or Instagram, if I learn how to use it properly by then) and perhaps even the odd video during the journey, so please follow the journey there if you want to know how I am doing.

It’s nearly mid-night here, and its already way past the bed time of this “child”, so I’ll end this post here.

Ultreia!


Edit: If you like the settings / environment where I recorded the video, I have writen several blog posts about the Swinley Forest already. Links below:

  1. Blue and Green Trails (also available in Portuguese AND German)
  2. Red Trail (English ONLY)

Do you like these posts? Why, then, don’t you pay me a coffee to help with the blog hosting cost and as a caffeine incentive to keep me going through the long hours of the night? (Suggested amount: £2.00 or USD $3.00 or 2.50€ or whatever you want to give). You may donate through my Patreon Page or through PayPal directly. Become a Patron

Please rate this post by clicking on the desired star (1 = Awful, 5 = Excellent)
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Faith's Way (Caminho da Fé), Day 4: From Casa Branca to Vargem Grande do Sul (D. Cidinha)

In this post…

    1. Introduction
    2. Measures and expenses for this day (Garmin Telemetry)
    3. Stage 07: From  Casa Branca to Itobi + Video
    4. Stage 08 (+ 1/2 of 9): From Itobi to Vargem Grande do Sul (Dona Cidinha’s Hostel) + Video
    5. Pictures taken on this day.

Introduction

If this is the first post you read on this series, I recommend you take a look at the introduction post published on the 28th of February 2018. That post explains what the Faith’s Way is, my reasons for doing it and provides information that might be useful to you, if you decide you want to do it too.

In this post I will cover the 4th day of this 12 day / 600 Km journey between the town of Casa Branca and the rural hostel of Dona Cidinha (Dona translates to Mrs. in Portuguese, hence Mrs. Cidinha) via the town of Vargem Grande do Sul, all in the federal state of São Paulo.

As explained in the introduction post, based on the experience I had when creating videos for the Camino de Santiago in 2015, when I started this series my intention was to divide the distance between the major towns or urban centres as separate stages, otherwise the videos would become too long to watch. It turns out, however, that many pilgrims prefer to overnight away from urban areas in one of the many rural hostels along the caminho.

So, if I was to follow this rule, stage 7 would be between Casa Branca and Itobi, stage 8 between Itobi and Vargem Grande do Sul and stage 9 between Vargem Grande do Sul and the village of São Roque da Fartura, however as I stopped in Dona Cidinha’s hostel that night, half of stage 9 is covered here and the other half will be covered in the next post.

You can download the official map of the Caminho from the website of the Friends of the Caminho Association. From there you can also download a list of credentialed accommodations for your journey. Most places in that list are simple family owned pilgrims’ hostels. Some in very rural locations (farms) others in more urban areas. Some establishments are hotels. Family owned Pilgrims’ hostels along the way have usually a set value that includes the meals as well, typically dinner and breakfast, but all hotels listed there will also offer a reduced pilgrim’s rate provided you present them your pilgrim’s credentials.

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Measures and expenses for this day (Garmin Telemetry)

    • Distance traveled from Casa Branca to Dona Cidinha’s Rural Hostel : 59.73 Km
    • Total duration of this journey: 7h 6min
    • Total moving time: 4h 39m
    • Overnight location at the end of the journey:
      • Dona Cidinha’s Rural Hostel (they do not speak English), +55 19 9 81700069
    • Total expenses on this day: R$ 99.00
      • Food: R$ 29.00 (Burger in Itobi)
      • Accommodation: R$ 70.00 (Includes Dinner and Breakfast)
  • Total Elevation Gain on this track: 880m
  • Average Speed: 8.0 Km/h
  • Average Moving Speed: 12.2 Km/h
  • Max Speed achieved: 61.6 Km/h
  • Average Heart Rate: 124 bpm
  • Max. Heart Rate: 160 bpm
  • Calories burned: 2,556 CAL
  • Click here to see the Garmin Connect page for this activity
CF04, Garmin Stats
Elevation, Speed and Heart Rate between Casa Branca and Dona Cidinha’s Rural Hostel on the day 4 of my Pilgrimage.

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Stage 07: From  Casa Branca to Itobi + Video.

Pilgrims who want to experience the “true” pilgrimage experience (if there is such a thing) have to accept that pilgrims’ hostel are often a difficult place to sleep. Some people have trouble sharing a room with just one person more, imagine several. As described in the previous post, The pilgrim’s hostel  of the Catholic Church of our lady of the exile in Casa Branca has 2 large bedrooms. The one I stayed in has a little common area with a sofa, a TV and a dinning table and the room itself with 3 beds and a bathroom / toilet, which is a bit of a luxury. I don’t mind sharing, but there is nothing like having a room just for oneself. No worries about noises from people snoring (one’s one or others) and those that have to go the the toilet in the middle of the night. As I was fortunate to be the only one in the room that night, I slept very well. Bed was comfy and the temperature was perfect.

The next morning breakfast was served in the hall and was very simple. Consisted of bread, butter, different types of jam and some fruit. Coffee and milk were also available. This was the moment I stamped my pilgrim’s credentials and also signed the guest book (they leave the stamp and the book on the breakfast table). I did not meet the pilgrim ladies from the day before, but I met Andrea, who was setting up the breakfast table.

After breakfast I packed the bike and left, making the mistake of taking the room key with me. I had put the key in the back pocket of my shirt to return it to Andrea in the breakfast room, but in the hurry to leave (as it was already a bit late by that time), I forgot to do it.

I rode to the town centre of Casa Branca and visited the cathedral. The cathedral is quite impressive for the size of the town. I spend quite some time there taking pictures and appreciating the paintings in the walls and ceiling. It was at that moment I realised I still had the room key with me, so I phoned Andrea at the hostel who told me to leave it at the cathedral and someone would pick it up later. It was a relief not having to cycle back the distance from the cathedral to the hostel.

The GPS data tracked by my Garmin shows that I rode 15.61 Km between Casa Branca and Itobi, which is consistent with the distance shown in the official map of the Caminho. I did this in 1h 59m by bike, but this includes the stop at the cathedral.

I’m not going to describe the journey to Itobi as you can watch it on the video above, but as highlights I can mentioned the small forest fire that the town’s public service was putting off on the outskirts of Casa Branca and the fact that when I arrived in Itobi, I followed the yellow arrows that led me away from town. Although the same thing happened in Cravinhos on the 1st day of the pilgrimage I was still under the impression that the arrows would always take you first to the town centre or to the nearest pilgrim accommodation, but that doesn’t appear to be the case. I rode about 3.5 Km and then turned back to the town centre, a 7 Km waste of time and effort, but that is part of a pilgrimage. At least I had the opportunity to have a really nice burger in Itobi after stamping my pilgrim’s credentials at the Ypê Hotel, the only credentialed pilgrims’ accommodation in the accommodation list of the friends of the caminho association.

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Stage 08 (+ 1/2 of 9): From Itobi to Vargem Grande do Sul (Dona Cidinha’s Hostel) + Video

OK, as explained in the above introduction, the next stage should cover only the distance between the towns of Itobi and Vargem Grande do Sul, however, as I arrived at the Prince Hotel (Hotel Principe) in Vargem Grande do Sul, it was still early in the day for me, so I decided to cycle the further 15 Km to Mrs Cidinha’s hostel, which I had heard good things about before leaving to do the caminho. This is the reason why this video is a little longer than usual and why stage 9 will be broken in two. So let’s call this the stage 8 plus 1/2 of stage 9, shall we? The next half of stage 9 between the rural hostel of Dona Cidinha and the village of São Roque da Fartura, will be covered in the next post.

If you are just covering the distance between Itobi and Vargem Grande do Sul (stage 8), the Prince Hotel is one of the credentialed places for pilgrim accommodation in town. The hotel is practically inside the grounds of a petrol station, so it might be a little difficult to find. They will also stamp your pilgrim credentials and offer you a pilgrim rate if you decide to stay there.

The GPS data tracked by my Garmin shows that I rode 18 Km between Itobi and Vargem Grande do Sul, which for some reason is 3 Km more than indicated in the official map of the Caminho. After Vargem Grande do Sul I also rode a further 15.37 Km to the rural hostel I slept that night. It took me 1h 31m to cover this distance and a further 2h 36m to cover the distance between Vargem Grande do Sul and Mrs Cidinha’s rural hostel.

The journey between Itobi and Vargem Grande do Sul was largely uneventful, with exception to the fact that as I arrived in Vargem Grande the battery of my GoPRO ran out, hence the reason why there is a tiny portion of urban cycling missing from the footage, but nothing that matters. For walking pilgrims, please beware that about 13 Km of this route is along side the Father Gino Righetti road, which is paved and has moderate traffic. I did follow the yellow arrows, but unless I missed one, the distance tracked by my Garmin was 18 Km, which for some reason is 3 Km more than the distance shown in the official map of the caminho.

After stamping my pilgrim’s credential at the hotel, I rode into the town centre and did a quick stop for a picture at the town’s main church and continued the journey. As in any activity, distraction comes at a price. I somehow missed a pair of yellow signs painted at the lamp post indicating a right turn at the next crossing and that has also costed me an extra 2 Km of cycling. Thankfully I realised I was wrong early enough. After I watched the footage I came to the conclusion that the signs where indeed a little hard to see, so I have pointed them up at the video to avoid any other pilgrims making the same mistake.

In the outskirts of town there is a crossing over a dangerous highway. The arrows appear to invite the pilgrim to jump over the concrete barrier in the middle of the road, but please do NOT do that. Turn left towards the round-about at the bottom of the road (just about 250 m away) and use the round-about to cross to the other side. As I write this post a few years after being there, I am reliably informed that the route has changed slightly and that the yellow arrows now guide the pilgrims directly to the round about, but decided to leave this warning just in case.

The journey to Dona Cidinha’s hostel was the toughest part of the day. The small sand and dust filled dirt roads (at times), had hills that forced me to push my bike several times. That should explain the reason why I covered the 18 Km between Itobi and Vargem Grande do Sul in 1h 31m, but the 15.37 Km from Vargem Grande do Sul to Dona Cidinha’s rural hostel in 2h 36m.

I arrived at the rural hostel as the sun was setting on the horizon, which was a really nice way to end the day. The hostel is in a hill and the views from there are great. Dona Cidinha and Mr Francisco were already expecting me as I had phoned ahead. Again I was fortunate (?) to be the only pilgrim in the hostel that night, so I had the entire house for me (the hostel is a in separate building from the house of the hosts). Mr Francisco brought the home made dinner for me that night and it was delicious. They are a very nice and gentle couple and I truly recommend that you stayed with them if you don’t mind the fact the the hostel is pretty much in the middle of nowhere and that there is no WiFi there (4G signal was OK though). The hostel is large and in its 4 bedrooms and living room it can accommodate about 20 pilgrims at once. They have a large bathroom / toilet inside the house and a small toilet in the outside barbecue place, where there are also several tables and chairs. The bedroom I stayed had a double and a single bed. The other rooms have a mix of bunk beds and single beds. The living room has a sofa and a TV and also contains a single bed and a bunk bed. The hostel has also a large and fully equipped kitchen with a long table, a fridge, a freezer and a microwave oven.

The guest book contains a few notes in Spanish and English indicating that, despite its remoteness, people from several nationalities visited there. The walls of the hostel are covered with pictures and post cards sent by previous visitors and you can really spend hours looking at all of them if you want.

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Pictures taken on this day.

Click on any picture for full detail

The following pictures are photos taken from the Guest Book pages of the pilgrims’ hostel at the Catholic Church of our lady of the exile in Casa Branca, São Paulo, Brazil.

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If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to comment or send me a message through the contact form. Please subscribe to my Blog and/or to my YouTube channel if you don’t want to miss the next one and help me spread the word by liking and sharing my Facebook Page and Tweeter feed also. Thank you all for your time and “Bom Caminho!”.


Do you like these posts? Why, then, don’t you pay me a coffee to help with the blog hosting cost and as a caffeine incentive to keep me going through the long hours of the night? (Suggested amount: £2.00 or USD $3.00 or 2.50€ or whatever you want to give). You may donate through my Patreon Page or through PayPal directly. Become a Patron

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07/29. Via Francigena, Châlons-en-Champagne to Brienne-le-Château [GPX File]

This GPS file represents the route I took between these two locations during my Via Francigena pilgrimage by bike from Canterbury, in the UK, to Rome, in Italy.

The route contains mistakes and tracks I may not recommend you to take, so it is important to read the respective posts for more context.

Use of this resource at your own risk.

 

Look for details here:

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Faith's Way (Caminho da Fé), Day 03: From Santa Rosa de Viterbo to Casa Branca

In this post…

    1. Introduction
    2. Measures and expenses for this day (Garmin Telemetry)
    3. Stage 05: From  Santa Rosa de Viterbo to Tambaú + Video
    4. Stage 06: From Tambaú to Casa Branca + Video
    5. Pictures taken on this day.

Introduction

If this is the first post you read on this series, I recommend you take a look at the introduction post published on the 28th of February 2018. That post explains what the Faith’s Way is, my reasons for doing it and provides information that might be useful to you, if you decide you want to do it too.

In this post I will cover the 3rd day of this 12 day / 600 Km journey between the town of Santa Rosa de Viterbo and the town of Casa Branca via the town of Tambaú, all in the federal state of São Paulo.

As explained in the introduction post, I broke the entire journey into 21 stages, as per the official map of the Caminho. There will be 1 video for each stage of the journey, so the blog post for this day contains two videos. One covering the journey between Santa Rosa de Viterbo and Tambaú and the other covering the journey between Tambaú and Casa Branca.

You can download the official map of the Caminho from the website of the Friends of the Caminho Association. From there you can also download a list of credentialed accommodations for your journey. Most places in that list are simple family owned pilgrims’ hostels. Some in very rural locations (farms) others in more urban areas. Some establishments are hotels. Family owned Pilgrims’ hostels along the way have usually a set value that includes the meals as well, typically dinner and breakfast, but all hotels listed there will also offer a reduced pilgrim’s rate provided you present them your pilgrim’s credentials.

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Measures and expenses for this day (Garmin Telemetry)

  • Distance traveled from Santa Rosa de Viterbo to Casa Branca: 60.19 Km
  • Total duration of this journey: 6 h 15 min
  • Total moving time: 4h 14m
  • Overnight location at the end of the journey:
  • Total expenses on this day: R$ 70.00
    • Food: R$ 20.00 (dinner – delivery)
    • Accommodation: R$ 50.00 (Breakfast incl)
    • PS. Normally the care takers of the hostel offer dinner and breakfast together with the accommodation for R$ 70.00, but the day I was there was normal a normal day for them. Read the post below to understand why.
  • Total Elevation Gain on this track: 620m
  • Average Speed: 9.6 Km/h
  • Max Speed achieved: 57.8 Km/h
  • Average Heart Rate: 128 bpm
  • Max. Heart Rate: 163 bpm
  • Calories burned: 2,347 CAL
  • Click here to see the Garmin Connect page for this activity
Garmin Telemetry, Santa Rosa de Viterbo - Casa Branca
Elevation, Speed and Heart Rate between Santa Rosa de Viterbo and Casa Branca

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Stage 05: From  Santa Rosa de Viterbo to Tambaú + Video.

The night at the Malim Hotel was good. There was no TV in my room, but these days, who needs a TV when you have WiFi? Breakfast was good and plentiful too and I took my time enjoying it. Even spent almost 30 minutes that morning talking to the receptionist of the hotel, trying to understand if the town had any relation to the town of Viterbo in Italy, which is also along another pilgrimage route known as Via Francigena, that I completed in 2016 (it does, btw, but that was explained in the previous post).

The official map of the Caminho indicated that the distance between Santa Rosa de Viterbo and Tambaú was of 36 Km which is one of the longest stretches of the Caminho. To be honest, I wasn’t really looking forward to the same long stretches of fine sand and dust from the day before, but I decided to leave the hotel and follow the yellow arrows to see how the way was and decide later if I was going to stick on the original path or try to find an alternative route, if one was available.

Regional SP-332 Highway between Santa Rosa de Viterbo and Tambaú
Regional SP-332 Highway between Santa Rosa de Viterbo and Tambaú

So, I rode on the Caminho path for about 5.0 Km, following the yellow arrows on the dirt road. The terrain, however, was as sandy and difficult as those in the day before, and I was a tired and bored with the poor performance of the previous 2 days, so I decided to look for an alternative in Google Maps. I knew, from talking to the hotel staff in the morning, there was a paved road to Tambaú that followed in parallel to the Caminho path. At the little village of Nhumirim, 5 Km from Santa Rosa de Viterbo, instead of turning left at the yellow arrow indicating the Caminho path (see in the video), I followed on for another 2 Km to take the SP-332, a regional highway, to Tambaú. Therefore I obviously cannot show you the original caminho path from Nhumirim to Tambaú and I’ll leave it up to you to decide what to do if you find yourself in that position, but I can tell you that I do not regret having done the remaining 23 Km on the highway. I felt safe on that road due to the wide hard-shoulders and the fact that most of the drivers respected the 1.5 m distance. That route also did cut 6 Km of the distance between Santa Rosa de Viterbo and Tambaú and allowed me to cover these 23 remaining Km in 1h and 20 min, an average of 17 Km/h which was almost double the average of the day before. If you are on a bike I would recommend this route to you, but if you are walking, even though I don’t how the way is, it would be probably safer to stick to the Caminho path.

Tambaú Town Hall. It used to be Tambaú's old railway station.
Tambaú Town Hall. It used to be Tambaú’s old railway station.

Another downside of not following the original path is that you don’t have the yellow arrows to guide you anymore, so you will have to find your own method of navigation. I decided to ride the the town hall of Tambaú as typically this is one of the places you can get information about the path and also stamp your credential, but that was not the case. As I got to the town hall the staff told me that Caminho pilgrims are usually served at the town’s tourism information office / dept which was, however, not far from that location. Tambaú is not a village, but it is not a big town either, so everything is relatively close.

Tambaú's Tourism Department is where you can get your pilgrim's credential stamped.
Tambaú’s Tourism Department is where you can get your pilgrim’s credential stamped.

After having my pilgrim’s credential stamped at the tourism information office and, as I had gotten to Tambaú much quicker than I expected (had I followed the original Caminho path), I could afford a longer rest time there. The office has a cold water fountain available for the pilgrim’s at the lower level and I had a little snack I had brought with me. Even had time to do a quick chat with my children back in the UK. I had the feeling that Tambaú would have been a nice place to spend the night, but it was too early for me, so after 30 min or so, I resumed the journey following the yellow arrows towards Casa Branca, the next destination in the path. For those willing to stay in Tambaú the Eliana Hotel is right in front of the Tourism Information Office and is a credentialed hotel with special rates for pilgrims (requires the pilgrims’ credentials).

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Stage 06: From Tambaú to Casa Branca + Video

The 30 min rest I had in Tambaú helped a lot in terms of motivation for the next stage of the path. I left with the decision that I would return to the original caminho path and follow the yellow arrows all the way to Casa Branca, regardless of how bad it was. I also don’t regret that decision, but I could, again, have saved 3.87 Km of the journey and, perhaps, prevented one of the 3 tumbles I had during the pilgrimage, had I taken the paved road between Tambaú and Casa Branca. One of my goals was to be able to show the Caminho da Fé to others as it is. I did, however, highlight that point in the video where you can take the decision of staying on the shorter paved road or taking the longer dirt tracks to Casa Branca,

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Interior of the church in Tambaú

As I was making my way out of Tambaú I rode by the town’s main church, the so called Sanctuary of our Lady Aparecida (not to be confused with the Basilica of the National Shrine of Our Lady of Aparecida in Aparecida do Norte) a church built by father Donizetti Tavares de Lima who was noted for his extensive work in the region and famed for his reported miracles and other wonders.

As I mentioned above, it was in this part of the journey which I took the 2nd of the 3 tumbles I had throughout my journey to Aparecida. Some of the dirt roads and tracks of the original caminho are farm tracks with a lot of fine sand and the sand banks are sometimes difficult to spot in the distance. All it takes is a moment of distraction for you to kiss the ground. In my case I was going down a little hill, picked up some speed and when the front wheel hit a sand bank it skidded to the right. Thankfully there were no injures or damage on this little accident. I also highlighted this incident in the video.

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Pilgrims on foot, about 10 Km before Casa Branca

About 10 Km before Casa Branca I met 3 female pilgrims on foot who started their journey in Tambaú earlier that day. They wanted to walk all the way to Aparecida, but were considering of doing it over several different moments i.e. walking a portion of the pilgrimage, going home, then coming back a few days later to the point they stopped, walking another portion and repeating this until they got to Aparecida. This is also a valid pilgrimage option for those who don’t have the time to do it all in one go. I met one of these 3 ladies as I arrived at the pilgrims’ hostel later that evening as she wasn’t feeling well and took the rural bus to town. Her 2 friends decided to walk the rest of the caminho to Casa Branca and only arrived late that night.

Right after arriving in Casa Branca the gimbal’s batteries died, so a small portion of the video at the end was recorded with the camera mounted on the handlebar, hence the increased shakiness of the image.

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Catholic Church of our lady of the exile in Casa Branca

As I arrived at the Catholic Church of our lady of the exile in Casa Branca, where the pilgrim’s hostel is,  I was told to go talk to Mr José or Mrs Maria, his wife. They are the care takers of the pilgrims’ hostel and for a flat rate of R$ 70.00 they usually offer dinner and breakfast to the pilgrims, in addition to the accommodation. This night in particular, Mr José told me that his wife would not be able to cook dinner as their son had been kidnapped by criminals that day, who stole his motorcycle and spanked beat him causing him to be admitted into the local hospital. Mrs Maria was understandably very nervous and stressed about that all situation. Their son later appeared and despite the beating he was OK. Because of the lack of dinner Mr José charged us with only R$ 50.00 for the accommodation and breakfast the next day.

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Night view of the Catholic Church of our lady of the exile in Casa Branca

After getting settled and having a shower, Mr José show me to the laundry area and I placed all my dirty clothes in the simple washing machine available there. Soap was also provided as well as indoor hanging lines.

The 3 pilgrim ladies and I ordered food to be delivered from a supplier recommended by Mr José, which cost exactly the R$ 20.00 we would have to paid him for dinner. Food arrived quickly, was plentiful, warm and delicious. A big plastic cup of delicious freshly squeezed orange juice came with it, as per my order. Although the room I was in had 3 beds I was the only pilgrim to sleep in it that night, The other 3 pilgrim ladies shared another room and I believe we were the only pilgrims in the hostel that night. My room had a private bathroom/toilet (suite) as well as a small separate living area with a table and a TV and although reception was not excellent it allowed me to watch the evening news while I was having dinner.

The weather that night was excellent. Not very warm, but not cold either, perfect for a little walk around the church grounds and for some night pictures.

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Pictures taken on this day.

Click on any picture for full detail

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If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to comment or send me a message through the contact form. Please subscribe to my Blog and/or to my YouTube channel if you don’t want to miss the next one and help me spread the word by liking and sharing my Facebook Page and Tweeter feed also. Thank you all for your time and “Bom Caminho!”.


Do you like these posts? Why, then, don’t you pay me a coffee to help with the blog hosting cost and as a caffeine incentive to keep me going through the long hours of the night? (Suggested amount: £2.00 or USD $3.00 or 2.50€ or whatever you want to give). You may donate through my Patreon Page or through PayPal directly. Become a Patron





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Royal Wedding Ride to Windsor Castle

This article is not available in Portuguese and German animated GIF

In two days (19th May) the UK is going to celebrate the Royal Wedding of Prince Henry of Wales (or Harry, as he is more popularly known); Princess Diana’s second Son. He is marrying actress Rachel Meghan Markle at the St George’s Chapel in Windsor Castle where the Queen and Prince Philip live for most of the year. I will not get into any details about their wedding as the media has been and will be covering the event extensively and in every minute detail. On the days prior to and on the wedding day, I expect the town of Windsor will be completely taken by government officials, security personal, diplomats, rich people, not so rich, but curious people and tourists, so for me in particular Windsor is a “no go” destination in the period.

Thankfully, the 7th of May was a bank holiday in the UK and it was a gorgeous day. The sun was shining, the skies were clear and the temperature was ideal for a bike ride. So, as I mentioned the royal wedding at the end of the video, I decided to call this ride the “Royal Wedding Ride to Windsor Castle” and I took the opportunity to start it from Bracknell’s, new town centre, called “The Lexicon“, so I could show it to you all as well (the old town centre was demolished a few years ago to give way to the construction of The Lexicon, an investment estimated at approx. £750 million).

Windsor is a regular cycling destination for me. If you look through the blog you’ll see I have recorded several rides to Windsor over the last 3 years. Actually, let me do this job for you…

On the 19th of July 2015 I published a post containing a 9 min 37 sec time-lapse video starting from Bracknell’s train station, but using a different route which takes me by the entrance of the Legoland Park in Windsor and then through some private roads of a farm which I suspect belongs to the crown.

On the 20th of September 2015 I published a post containing a 1h long video in “normal mode” of my ride from my home in Bracknell to Windsor Castle. On this post I also published a 10 min video of my walking around the centre of Windsor starting from Windsor Castle where the video above stopped.

On the 18th October 2015 I again posted another post of a mid-autumn bike ride to Windsor containing the video of the ride from Bracknell to Windsor and the way back from Windsor to Bracknell . The first video is only 2 min and 31 sec long as it was a 5 second interval time-lapse recording. I did use the same route and rode from home to the old Bracknell Town Centre, but on my way back to Bracknell, I used the same Legoland Park route as on the post of the 19th of July one.

On the 8th of February 2016 I published a post containing 2 videos: An 8 min and 37 sec time-lapse video from Bracknell’s South Hill Park, using pretty much the same route as the one I used in this post, and also a video of the way back to Bracknell , using the same Legoland Park route as on the way back of the above post.

These post show only the rides to Windsor that I recorded. The distance between my home to Windsor is, for me, the perfect training length and I have often also used Windsor as a destination to do “full load” test rides in advance of long touring trips such as the one I did to Rome in 2016.

If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to comment or send me a message through the contact form. Please subscribe to my Blog and/or to my YouTube channel if you don’t want to miss the next one and help me spread the word by liking and sharing my Facebook Page and Tweeter feed also.

Thank you for your time!


Do you like these posts? Why, then, don’t you pay me a coffee to help with the blog hosting cost and as a caffeine incentive to keep me going through the long hours of the night? (Suggested amount: £2.00 or USD $3.00 or 2.50€ or whatever you want to give). You may donate through my Patreon Page or through PayPal directly. Become a Patron


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Faith's Way (Caminho da Fé), Day 02: From Cravinhos to Santa Rosa de Viterbo

In this post…

    1. Introduction
    2. Measures and expenses for this day (Garmin Telemetry)
    3. Stage 03: From  Cravinhos to São Simão + Video
    4. Stage 04: From São Simão to Santa Rosa de Viterbo + Video
    5. Pictures taken on this day.

Introduction

If this is the first post you read on this series, I recommend you take a look at the introduction post published on the 28th of February 2018. That post explains what the Faith’s Way is, my reasons for doing it and provides information that might be useful to you, if you decide you want to do it too.

In this post I will cover the 2nd day of this 12 day, 600 Km, journey between the town of Cravinhos and the town of Santa Rosa de Viterbo, both in the federal state of São Paulo.

As explained in the introduction post, I broke the entire journey into 21 stages, as per the official map of the Caminho. There will be 1 video for each stage of the journey, so the blog post for this day contains two videos. One covering the journey between Cravinhos and São Simão and the other between São Simão and Santa Rosa de Viterbo.

You can download the official map of the Caminho from the website of the Friends of the Caminho Association. From there you can also download a list of credentialed accommodations for your journey. Most places in that list are simple family owned pilgrims’ hostels. Some in very rural locations (farms) others in more urban areas. Some establishments are hotels. Family owned Pilgrims’ hostels along the way have usually a set value that includes the meals as well, typically dinner and breakfast, but all hotels listed there will also offer a reduced pilgrim’s rate provided you present them your pilgrim’s credentials.

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Measures and expenses for this day (Garmin Telemetry)

  • Distance traveled from Cravinhos to Santa Rosa de Viterbo: 59.02 Km
  • Total duration of this journey: 6h 40m
  • Total moving time: 4h 57m
  • Overnight location at the end of the journey:
  • Total expenses on this day: R$ 92.50
    • Food: R$ 17.50 (dinner at a local restaurant)
    • Accommodation: R$ 75.00 (Breakfast incl)
  • Total Elevation Gain on this track: 658m
  • Average Speed: 8.9 Km/h
  • Max Speed achieved: 45.2 Km/h
  • Average Heart Rate: 132 bpm
  • Max. Heart Rate: 158 bpm
  • Calories burned: 2,815 CAL
  • Click here to see the Garmin Connect page for this activity
Elevation, Speed and Heart Rate between Cravinhos and Santa Rosa de Viterbo
Elevation, Speed and Heart Rate between Cravinhos and Santa Rosa de Viterbo (Click to open full screen).

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Stage 03: From  Cravinhos to São Simão + Video.

A good night of sleep was all it took to recover from the exposure to sun, the dust and sand and the mistakes of the previous day. The breakfast table at the hotel had plenty of the most important things to sustain me for the entire day (among others ham, cheese, scrambled eggs, variety of jam and bread, fruit and cereal).

I had washed the clothes of the day before in the bathroom and they were all dry. The hotel has a backyard where I