Another early start, fuelled by oats, sparked by a shot of coffee, and the 21 km to Sao Luis, including some steep climbing, and views of the sea, is done before 11 am ... skipping the scenic alternative into Sao Luis saved a couple of kilometres and relegated the walk to yellow and red markers and a very steep and slippery descent as punishment ... coffee and eggy bread at Gabriela's Cafe and onto the next stage ... 25 km and pleasant enough, stripped to T-shirt, sandy lanes, occasionally ripped up by tracked vehicles busy planting eucalyptus across the hillsides ... much disliked by the local ecologists for their thirst and domination of the landscape. .. not good for bio-diversity ... subsidised by EU ... a subject to be investigated ... who decides on what gets subsidised? On what criteria? An English farmer friend said he was farming brown envelopes ... in his case intensive feeding of cattle, and constant problems of disease, plus draining the moors for grouse murderers ... and leading to flooding downstream ... even before the EU common agricultural policy farmers were paid to dig up hedgerows for efficiency ... later paid to put them back after Rachel Carson, with Silent Spring, and others reported the unintended consequences of trying to dominate Nature ...
Back on the trail, a riverside track provides a different setting, sound of running water and scent of wild herbs ... a picnic lunch from yesterday evenings provisions ... and on ... more upping and downing and into town before 5 pm, ready for a rest and a beer, before checking the bus station to see if Zambujeira do Mar was an option ... Joao's Hakuna Matata hostel ... but no bus shown and Booking dot com not helpful ... then Residential Rita appears, Jose offers a reduced €30 with breakfast ... and his photo ... after another 40+ day, it's a bargain ...
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