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Completing the Ring of Kerry

Posted in around the UK, conqueror challenges, Fun Stuff, Health, Inspiration, It's my life, long distance walks - solo, Travel, walk 1000 miles 2020, tagged Cindy's travels, conqueror virtual challenges, long distance walking, walk1000miles on November 13, 2020| Leave a Comment »

Absolutely delighted to have completed the Ring of Kerry virtual challenge tonight.

After I’d updated my Conqueror app kms last night I found I only had 1.1km left to complete the challenge. So tonight after I got back from visiting the kids, I went for a short walk along the clifftop and 1.6km later, I’m done.

Challenge #5 in the bag. For someone who said she was only going to do one….😁😁😁🤭🤭

A cheap way to travel the world. 😉

Congratulations, you have completed Ireland’s well known scenic route the Ring of Kerry. Before you leave spend a little more time in Killarney by visiting the historical site of the 15th century Ross Castle.

Overlooking the third largest lake in Ireland, called Lough Leane, the castle was built by the local ruling clan, O’Donoghues Mór. Ross Castle was one of the last castles in Ireland to surrender to Cromwell’s forces. Up until the 17th century the castle was surrounded by a curtain wall with towers in each corner. A portion of the curtain wall was torn down to make way for expansion whilst in use as a barracks. Today the castle is open to visitors, retaining the tower house, part of the curtain wall and two towers.

From the castle take a boat ride on the lake to Innisfallen Island, the home to the ruins Innisfallen Abbey. Founded in 640 AD by St Finian, the patron saint of the area, it was occupied for nearly a thousand years. Nothing remains from that early settlement. The current ruins are a late 12th century Augustinian Priory. Over a few hundred years the resident monks wrote the famed Annals of Innisfallen, a chronicle of Ireland’s medieval history. In the late 16th century during Queen Elizabeth I’s reign, the monks were dispossessed of their abbey.

An excerpt from Thomas Moore’s poem entitled Sweet Innisfallen (c1870) describes it best:

Sweet Innisfallen, fare thee well,
May calm and sunshine long be thine!
How fair thou art let other tell,
To feel how fair shall long be mine.
Sweet Innisfallen, long shall dwell
In memory’s dream that sunny smile,
Which o’er thee on that evening fell,
When first I saw thy fairy isle…

It’s so easy to get discouraged these days what with lockdown and various crazy things happening in the world, so for me this has been a fun way to keep motivated, and even when I really don’t feel like getting out, the thought of adding kms to my challenge gets me out the house.

I love the milestone postcards we get and the information that comes with them. The plant a tree initiative is fantastic and its exciting to know that my walking challenges have planted 25 trees so far

If you’d like to join me on these virtual challenges, you can sign up here via my link.

https://www.theconqueror.events/r/CE1474

This is not an affiliate link and I don’t make any money from people signing up, but you get a 10% discount on any walks you sign up for and I think I get a 10% discount as well….which is a moot point really since I’ve already signed up for all the walks I want to do 😃😃😃, although that’s no guarantee and I’m pretty certain that if they bring out more challenges, I’ll sign up 🤣🤣🤣

What’s next you might ask….well I’ve 477.7km to walk to complete my personal challenge of 2020kms in 2020, and next on the horizon is the Great Ocean Road, Australia and Alps to Ocean, NZ. Next year I’ll be walking the Cabot Trail, Canada and the Ring Road, Iceland.

Hope they bring out a 2021 challenge too.

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After 13 years

Posted in around the UK, It's my life, tagged people in the service industry are disposable commodities, working as a carer in the uk on November 13, 2020| 3 Comments »

Finally after 13 years I’ve taken the unprecedented step of applying to register with another agency.

Loyalty no longer works both ways. After 13 years the agency I work for have let me down really badly and I can no longer trust that they have my best interests at heart.

I started writing a post a few days ago about being a ‘disposable commodity’ in the care industry, and it saddens me tremendously to be reaching the point of taking this action, but I can no longer trust them to looking after my best interests despite over a decade of loyalty and upholding their reputation.

When dishonest carers are able to get off scotfree after sneakily ‘stealing’ assignments from right under your nose, and the agency acknowledges her duplicity but does nothing about it, is when you have to question your own loyalty.

I have to now question their values if that is how they allow their carers to behave.

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Sunrise, sunset

Posted in around the UK, gratitude, Inspiration, It's my life, photography, seaside towns of Britain, tagged autumn colours, being grateful, photographing the sunrise photographing sunset, photography, sunrise and sunset, sunrise at the English coast, the privilege of being alive on November 11, 2020| 3 Comments »

My favourite times of the year are autumn and winter. Although I do love spring…and there’s a lot to be said about summer 😉

I’m an autumn person – I love the rich golden patchwork of colours, the misty mornings, the chill in the air, the crunch of crispy leaves underfoot, the smell of bonfires, that extra hour in bed as the clocks go back, and the lateness of sunrise.

In fact autumn and winter are pretty much the only time I get to see the sunrise – for no other reason than that I love my first cup of tea in bed with a biscuit. I’m not an early riser.

Between assignments I’ve been staying at the new guest house I’ve found, a mere 3 minute walk from the cliff tops above the sea….and facing east.

I love sunrise and I love walking, so I’ve been getting up early to make the most of the free time available (except for the last few days when I’ve been poorly and just didn’t have the energy to get dressed, never mind drag myself out the door).

But last week, before the shock of losing my pending assignment (due to the absolute dishonesty and sneakyness of the current carer), jumped up and smacked me in the head and laid me low, I got up early for 3 days in a row and went out for a sunrise walk.

Here are some of the images….is there anything more privileged than being alive to watch the sun come up? Except perhaps still being alive to watch the sun go down

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Carving Pumpkins

Posted in around the UK, family and relationships, Fun Stuff, Holidays, It's my life, me and Peanut, tagged British traditions, halloween, pumpkin carving on November 1, 2020| 2 Comments »

Sounds like the name of a band….😁

If I remember correctly, I think there is a band with a similar name….Smashing Pumpkins?? Which sounds just as much fun, albeit a lot messier than carving pumpkins 🎃

Its amazing how many British traditions we have been introduced to since living here for the last 19 years.

Although we came late to the tradition and have only carved a pumpkin once before, now that my grandson is older we’ve introduced him to the tradition and the fun of carving a pumpkin for Halloween.

Growing up in the UK, I’m pretty certain that this won’t be the last time we carve a pumpkin, and it will become a new family tradition.

My daughter bought the pumpkins a few days ago and yesterday we sat in the garden, thankfully it wasn’t raining, and carved our pumpkins.

Daddy of course honoured the boobee with his name and I went for the more traditional scary face, and for good measure and keeping it contemporary, I also carved out the word Covid…🤪🤪 Its current news, so I had to.

We left them outside to start drying out, a hopeless endeavour since the weather is so grim, but they were sufficiently dried by evening. Daddy sourced some candles and lights off, candles in and we had our ‘scary’ Halloween.

The boobee was more interested in retrieving the candles and ‘blowing’ them out than the actual pumpkin faces….🤔🤔

A lovely family day.

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Lewes Castle

Posted in around the UK, cities and towns of the UK, Domesday Villages of England, Historical, It's my life, Palaces and castles in UK, Travel, tagged Cindy's travels, english history, exploring castles of england, lewes castle on October 28, 2020| 5 Comments »

I forgot to tell you about Lewes Castle!! How remiss of me. Only one of the most amazing attractions of the town..

When I first arrived in Lewes my attention was drawn to the fantastic 14th and 15th century buildings in the high street and I didn’t even notice the castle….probably also because I was sitting on the left hand side of the taxi 😉 and despite what I used to tell my daughter, I don’t have eyes in the back of my head, so I missed it altogether.

And unusually for me…..as with Newhaven, I didn’t do my research prior to visiting.

On my first Saturday here, during my break, I set off to explore and whoaaa, there’s a castle.

But as mentioned in a previous post, I had neither mask nor money with me 🤪🤪 Never mind, I’ll come back next week (the castle is only open on Saturday atm due to Covid-19). But of course next Saturday was raining. So no castle.

However this Saturday last, I had to visit regardless of the weather because I leave Lewes on Friday.

Saturday dawned rainy and windy but with an occasional blue sky sunshine, so off I went. They have a really good system set up. You’re greeted at the door by a lovely lady who takes all your test and trace details, you sanitise your hands, then she sends you off on a one-way system through the museum first, after which you can buy your ticket for a visit to the castle. Ergo, the museum is free to visit (I think). And visit you must.

The museum is not large, 2 rooms downstairs and 2 rooms upstairs, but they have a most amazing set up depicting the history of the area and the many artefacts that have been found in Sussex. An intimate little museum with just enough information to read and look at without being overwhelmed. My favourite artifacts were the swords. Wowww.

I had a good read, took some photos, bought a few items from the gift shop for my grandson, paid for my entry and another lovely lady guided me across to the gate and let me in.

I love castles 🤎🤎 There’s a massive shortage of castles in South Africa and the only castle I’d had experience of before coming to the UK was Cape Town Castle which isn’t really, but is rather a fort with grand ideas masquerading as a castle. It also has a history as a prison and is still a symbol of European oppression. Although to be fair, I guess most castles here have the same sort of background.

Anyway, back to Lewes Castle…

Like many castles today, this too is just a shadow of its former glory, but its fabulous. I climbed innumerable stairs to the top, sadly not the very top of the towers, which is where I really wanted to go, but the remains of the Great Hall will have to suffice.

The views across the valley to the hills are absolutely stunning, especially beautiful with the autumn colours. From here as well the view looks back in time to the 1264 Battle of Lewes.

A good view too of what used to be the Tilting Ground, now a bowling green, and in the distance I could see the windmill I passed a few days ago on my walk to Kingston. Awesome.

The wind was blowing a gale and howling in my ears, flicking leaves and branches here and there….just brilliant. It was wild. Yes, there’s a couple of trees growing out the side of the building and there’s a tree slap bang in the middle of what was the Great Hall…now that’s wild!!

As you can imagine with the unpleasant weather, there were not many people up there, so it was easy to explore, although there really wasn’t that much to explore. Shame about the towers – closed atm due to Covid-19. Geez, I just realised reading that sentence back, that I used the word ‘there’ 3 times 🤔🤔 English eh.

Coming back down the stairs you have fantastic views across the town and to the cliffs, and travelling from across country the castle can be seen from miles away….the position is brilliant.

In the courtyard is a fantastic Russian cannon and some wooden stocks

A bit of history:

A work in progress like most castles in England, Lewes Castle, originally known as Bray Castle, follows a motte and bailey design but unusually, has two mottes and was built on and added to over a few centuries.

The first motte, known as Brack Mount was completed shortly after the 1066 Norman conquest of England.

Both of the mottes were built by William de Warenne, 1st Earl of Surrey, who also, along with his wife Gundrada, built the nearby Priory of St. Pancras.

The mottes would originally have been surmounted by wooden palisades.

The second motte, known as the Keep, was completed in the late 11th century.
Both of which were built by William de Warenne, 1st Earl of Surrey.

Soldiers from the King’s army, set out from the castle to engage with Simon de Montfort at the Battle of Lewes in 1264.

Towers were added to one of the shell keeps in the 13th century.

The barbican gate was added in the 14th century.

Certainly not as enormous as some of the castles I’ve visited in the last 19 years, but no less impressive, it stands guard over a gap in the South Downs overlooking the towns of Lewes and Cliffe and the River Ouse that winds it’s way between the 2 towns.

In the distance…it looks far, but it’s only about a 10 minute walk

Lewes castle has the distinction of being the 49th castle I’ve visited as part of Project 101.

I’ve compiled a short video of some of the exhibits in the museum

I can highly recommend a visit to Lewes Castle if you’re in the area. At the moment they’re only open on Saturdays, but that might change in the future.

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The Gatekeeper

Posted in around the UK, Historical, It's my life, tagged books to read, politics, The Gatekeeper on October 27, 2020| Leave a Comment »

Weirdly I’m so enjoying this book.

A fascinating look at the machinations of government, political campaigns and what goes on behind closed doors, our famous Number 10 in this instance, and how incredibly quickly it can all go very wrong…

What’s quite exciting about this book too, is that I can remember most of these events; the campaigning, Blair handing over to Brown, Brown subsequently throwing in the towel, seeing Samantha heavily pregnant in the glare of her husband’s narrow victory. The palaver and calamitous headlines when Cameron formed a coalition government with Clegg – christ, you’d be forgiven for thinking a great big black hole had opened up on planet earth!!! 🤪🤪🤪

I also remember the smug expressions in the Rose Garden 🤔🤔

I’m about a quarter of the way through and I’m enthralled. I’m not a fan of DC or his party, but I ‘almost’ feel sorry for him 🤫🤫🤫

I was never into politics in South Africa. We had 1 party and that was the Nationalist Party. You reached voting age and voted for the Nationalist Party. Actually there were other parties of course but for decades the NP dominated. And then in 1994 things changed and the ANC came into power. And so that party has since dominated..again for decades, and even though there are other parties, its really a 1 party country.

But in the UK, its a different story. I’m constantly fascinated by the political scene and how it all works, even though I’m avoiding anything related to politics atm. This book is easy to read, not a pedantic tome but it cuts to the chase.

I remember with the last election, I was eligible to vote and so I took a keen interest and read everything I could lay my hands on. I read all the different editorials and some of the rags, depending on the political leanings of the current client.

I’ve always had a leaning towards conservatism, with a massive dash of liberal, but I liked the policies of the Labour and Green parties. Right then? Or left? Go figure!! One day I decided to do one of those stupid polls on Facebook to determine which party I should vote for. 😱😱😱 wtaf???

It came up as UKIP!!!! Excuse me while I die laughing 🤣🤣🤣🤣🙈🙉🙊☠💀 UKIP???? I loathe that party, I loathe what they stand for and I PARTICULARLY loathe and despise the leader of that particular party at the time. (I’ve seen him in action in person, and he’s vile, a loathsome creature). So when the results came back for UKIP 😠😠 🤮🤮 Bloody Facebook. I’m sure the poll was rigged 😝😝 and I definitely didn’t vote for UKIP.

Anywayyyyy, back to the book. Its fascinating and since the weather today was so horrible; raining and windy and I’m really tired (coming to the end of a particularly stressful assignment), I decided to curl up in bed and read. I don’t care how much money they get, or how much they make afterwards, but that is one job I would not like….

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Waterville – Ring of Kerry

Posted in conqueror challenges, Health, It's my life, long distance walks - solo, Travel, walk 1000 miles 2020, tagged conqueror virtual challenges, ring of Kerry, walk1000miles on October 27, 2020| Leave a Comment »

My very 1st postcard along the Ring of Kerry arrived yesterday 😃😃

This is one of the features about the Conqueror Virtual Challenges that I enjoy the most….

Waterville

Between Ballinskelligs Bay and Lough Currane (lake) on a narrow isthmus lies the coastal village of Waterville. Flanked by two championship 18-hole golf courses, one to the north and the other to the south, this small town of 496 residents is a bundle of surprises.

Waterville began as a village in the 1800s and although it remains a small village, you will never be short of something outdoorsy to do. There’s a plethora of walking and cycling routes with both easy and difficult levels. The Equestrian Centre conducts pony camps, horsemanship courses and beach rides. The Sea Synergy is a marine awareness and activity centre, with their main objective to educate about marine life and ocean conservation. Operated by marine biologist and ecologists, the organisation runs educational adventure tours and summer camps for kids and teens.

A walk on the promenade will bring you to a statue of Charlie Chaplin who enjoyed Waterville so much that for a decade he returned every year for holidays with his family. Obtaining permission from the Charlie Chaplin estate, Waterville hosts the annual Charlie Chaplin Comedy Film Festival.

When the first transatlantic cable was installed in 1858 between Newfoundland Canada and Valentia Island near Waterville it didn’t come without its problems. Working for a mere three weeks due to weak cables, it took five further attempts across nine years to eventually succeed in maintaining a lasting connection. The Atlantic Telegraph Co. had a monopoly over the industry and as a result the Commercial Cable Company from New York was established to break the monopoly and reduce prices by successfully installing cables in 1884 from Waterville to Nova Scotia. This brought a hive of activity into the village and the need for more housing to accommodate company personnel who settled in the area. Waterville became the European hub for the Company and at its peak was the largest cable station in the world.

Its so interesting to read about places on the actual route of the virtual route I’m following. I lived in Ireland for 6 months back in 2001/2002 and we travelled the country extensively. It helped that my sister and her husband lived there at the time, and loved travelling as much as I did. I went back a few years later (one of 8 trips) and we travelled to Galway and Conamarra where we enjoyed a fantastic holiday. Afterwards my friend and I hired a car and travelled right along the west coast, the south coast and the east coast back to Dublin over 7 days. Along the way we drove along part of the Ring of Kerry and it is stunning. I’d love to go back now, or as soon as, and walk the actual route.

But for now I shall content myself with the virtual postcards and the information that accompanies it, while I explore and walk around England.

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On the home straight…

Posted in around the UK, cities and towns of the UK, Domesday Villages of England, Historical, It's my life, Palaces and castles in UK, Travel, walk 1000 miles 2020, tagged Cindy's Travels in the UK, fifteenth century bookshop Lewes, lewes castle, river Ouse, the egret way Lewes, trinity church Lewes on October 26, 2020| Leave a Comment »

With just 4 days left in Lewes, today I was determined to find and follow the Egrets Way.

At least now I know where it starts, I didn’t waste 3/4 of my break trying to find the route.

But first I stopped off at Trinity Church, Southover. I’d been past it a number of times but it was always closed – today it was open 😃😃 There’s quite a history attached; “The church of Southover originated as a ‘hospitium’ or guest house to serve the nearby Priory of Saint Pancras founded by William de Warenne and his wife Gundrada in 1077 AD.

The tower was built in stages between 1714 and 1738, after the collapse of the earlier tower with spire in 1698. This may have been caused by hanging a ‘Great Bell’ in the previous year, which proved too much for the earlier structure. The location of the earlier tower is not certainly known,
but from what evidence is available probably stood where the Gundrada Chapel is built now.“

I was delighted to find a scallop shell in one of the glass windows with St James right above it ❤❤

After my brief visit to the church I walked down St James’s Street to have a closer look at the house at the end of the cul de sac – it looked like a gingerbread house. Imagine my amusement when on closer inspection I discovered the name of the house; The Gingerbread House ☺☺ Just perfect!!

I made my way towards the river via the carpark and soon picked up the Egrets Way. I’m dead keen to walk along the riverside to the little village of Southease, also a Domesday Book village and near to where Virginia Woolf, who at the time lived in nearby Rodmell, committed suicide in 1941 in the River Ouse.

Of course with all the rain over the last few days, and boy has it rained, the river is in full tumultuous flow and the riverside path is mostly a muddy quagmire, placing obstacles of watery pools in the way.

But I trudged along, determined to get as far as I could, zig-zagging from one side of the path to the other trying to find the least squelchy and muddy bits to traverse. Thanks be for my walking poles, as always they kept me upright when the mud was determined to see me on my bottom.

I arrived at one gate to find a pool of water right in the middle surrounded by mud, so balancing precariously on the wooden edges and hugging the upright struts I sort of swung my way around and through the gate….but I didn’t get very much further since the path at the next gate was just too muddy; and so I said “no, just no!”.

I beat a retreat and returned the way I had come.

Once past all the muddy puddles et al, I crossed a grassy patch and picked up the cycle/walking path that is sensibly gravelled and continued on my way.

The riverside path will have to wait for another time – perhaps when I eventually walk the South Downs Way that passes through Lewes, I may just divert for a few days and actually walk along the river to Southease….if it hasn’t been raining!!

Time will tell.

Meanwhile I followed the path, beneath the grim and dreary railway underpass, through a fine, new wooden gate and before too long I recognised the place I had originally seen the signpost for the Egrets Way, near the recycling centre. It also gave me the opportunity to see where I had gone so very wrong at my last attempt

Once I realized the error of my ways, the what and why became apparent. Instead of turning left, I was endeavouring to find a way through to the right 🤪🤪🤪👉❌👈 which of course would have taken me onto the railway line….clearly I need to do a map reading course 🤣🤣🤣 Even with the help of Google maps I still went wrong. How have I managed to not get lost on previous walks! Luck, I guess 🤭🤭🤞🤞

So now that I know my daft mistake, it doesn’t really matter since its unlikely I’ll walk that way again while here…but I’m glad I resolved the issue.

So whizzing along I made my way back into town, passing some interesting houses, the only surviving section of the Franciscan Friary

and while chatting on the phone to the relief carer who’d just left due to issues at the house, I once again went off piste….I had planned to go to Tesco for a packet of my secret vice, but since I was so completely not going in the right direction, I gave up and went back to the house.

On the way I passed the castle for another look and more photos 😁😁…wish the weather had been this fine on Saturday!!

Next a brief stop to take a few more photos of the 15th century bookshop windows….and spotted another book I would dearly love to buy – bad luck, the shop won’t be open again till Friday afternoon and by then I’ll be on my way….

I’m on the home straight. Hoorah!!

A little video with some more images from my walkabout today. The weather was fantastic

Lewes

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Slow toads crossing

Posted in around the UK, conqueror challenges, family and relationships, Fun Stuff, It's my life, me and Peanut, Travel, walk 1000 miles 2020, tagged conqueror virtual challenges, grandson, Lewes, my treasure, ring of Kerry, slow toads crossing, the egrets way, walk1000miles on October 22, 2020| 2 Comments »

Hoorah! Today’s walk was fruitful albeit shorter than usual. Not only did I finally find the blessed Egrets Way path after going off in COMPLETELY the wrong direction 🤪🤪🤪 and wasting 45 minutes of my break in the process (Passing the railway station should have been a clue…🤔🤔),

But I am once again a ‘Trail blazer’ However, whilst it may appear that I’m a trail blazer, I wish I could tell them how useless I am at reading Google maps, especially when the map moves as I turn my phone to see which way to go🤨😠

And my mileage reached 40% on the Ring of Kerry virtual challenge and so another tree will be planted.

As for the toads crossing, I wonder what happened to the fast toads… 🐸🐸🐸

Alls well that ends well…and another day bites the dust. I only have 7.5 days to go and I’m off, back to Ramsgate. Can’t wait to see my Boobee

This adorable, funny, gorgeous little guy who holds my heart in his hands – my Boobee

His nickname came about from 2 sources….he has loved playing peek-a-boo from when he was tiny, so I started calling him Boo, and now he says “boo” which is just so cute I could eat him…. Meanwhile his parents have been teaching him sign language as a tool for better communication with people who have no hearing. He learned the sign for bee 🐝 and it was so cute I kept asking him to sign it….and one day, I got all muddled when playing with him and called him ‘Boobee’. 😂😂☺☺ so now he’s my special special Boobee…..aka The Blur because he’s never still for one second and I can seldom get a photo of him that isn’t blurred….his Mummy, who sent me this photo, has the same problem…our phone cameras are just not fast enough to capture him in one place ☺☺

He’s a charm; funny, smart, cute, humorous, outgoing, friendly, loves Peppa Pig madly and is just adorable. I am so blessed to have him in my life.

Some other random photos from today, not as interesting as usual as my 6.84km walk wasn’t either….

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Reminiscing about beer and coke floats

Posted in Camino 2017, family and relationships, Fun Stuff, It's my life, long distance walks - solo, memories of days gone by, Travel, walk 1000 miles 2017, tagged baby boomers travel, long distance walking, reminiscing about my life, walking the Portuguese Camino, women walking solo on October 22, 2020| Leave a Comment »

I’ve been chatting to my sister V in SA (1 of 4 who still live there) about coke of all things. She was relating an episode from yesterday when she and our youngest sister D were showing D’s kids how to make a coke float – for the uninitiated, that’s coke and vanilla icecream. It fizzes up and makes a delicious, albeit very unhealthy drink, and a glorious mess if you don’t drink it quickly enough 🤣🤣🤣

I went on to say that much as I loathe coke and the company behind it, it’s the only drink that will suffice on a hot summer’s day of walking. It slakes my thirst and gives me an energy boost when I need it most. It’s also very good with pizza and due to its chemical composition, it dissolves heavy food….the only other time I drink it.

From there the conversation went onto our planned Camino in 2022. We’re going to walk the Portuguese Coastal Route from Porto to Caminha and then inland to Valenca and from Tui to Santiago de Compostela.

It will be my 2nd walk along this route and her first, also her first time walking the Camino since she’s cycled the French Route some years ago with our father who was also a keen cyclist.

I’m not into cycling and prefer walking, so to her credit, she’s up for walking the route. Our conversation brought back memories of my pilgrimage and that I drank a lot of beer during my walk 🤪🤪 My last reply to her went like this:

“No my tummy either but it seems to do the trick with thirst and heavy food (coke).
My choice of tipple on the Camino was beer 🍺🚶🏻‍♀️🚶🏻‍♀️of all things…I usually had my 1st one at between 10am and 11am depending on whether there was a place open to serve 🤭🤭 Mind you, now that I think about it, that’s probably why I enjoyed the Camino so much 🤣🤣”

Since I seldom drink, this was a departure from the norm for me, but as they say…..”when in Rome….” and all that, it made perfect sense to keep the Portuguese locals and other walkers company. Anyway that’s my reason 😁😁🍺🚶🏻‍♀️

My memories of the Camino are many and varied. I had such a fantastic time….it was a huge challenge and I cried a lot from pain, but I also laughed a lot and met some super people along The Way. Portugal is such a beautiful country and the route follows the coast which meant I had the Atlantic ocean to my left every single day till Caminha.