Julian kindly meets the Tavira train at Faro, having caught the earlier one, and proposes lunch at a vegetarian restaurant he knows ... then to the super duper express to Lisbon in just three hours ...landing at Oriente Station, a concrete design disaster, draughty, not at all user friendly and though the night train to Salamanca comes through, three hours in this place is not desired, so the starting station, Apolllonia is preferred ... and after walking hopefully for a while, stretching legs after sitting so long, a friendly road sweeper suggests a bus is required, since the walk is about ten kilometres ... possibly an exaggeration but good advice anyway and Apollonia turns out to be a proper old fashioned station, with tall booking hall and plenty of bars for snacks ... the train has beds, but a seat is booked and a few hours sleep are enough after the days of oversleeping at the hostel ...
Salamanca still sleeping in the rain at 5am when the train arrives and a little time is spent finding the way out ... assisted by another very helpful road sweeper, then it's head down and straight along the hard shoulder for six hours or so, avoiding parallel dirt track alternatives since they are claggy and prone to deep surface water in places ... a coffee stop at 9.30, then more or less non-stop to Cubo, where an open hostel takes a while to locate ... and well worth it in the end ... dinner and breakfast included, lucky since there are not many alternatives ... sunshine and showers the pattern and rain gear adequate for the task ... after a long nap to refresh the rather tired brain, Helmut has arrived from Salamanca ... retired German, he has been walking the Ways for a few years .... this time from Alicante, having started on February 18th and kept going through the rain ... tomorrow looks like another 30km, though far from hard shoulder ...
Filoberto and Loly from the private Albergue offer bed, dinner and breakfast, plus information about the area ... they started the hostel in 2012 when his building business crashed along with lots of others ... they seem to be enjoying the adventure and the regular company of an international cast of pilgrims ...
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