Heat Wave

CAMINO PORTUGUÉS – Day 2: Wednesday 27 May 2026 – VAIRÃO to BARCELOS (33 [+4] kilometres)

The Camino sign depicts a scallop shell, but today serves well as a solar warning

Today will live long in my walking memory. I slept well, through the heat and snores of the Vairão Monastery dormitory night, awoke at 5.45 am, and was walking, alone, within half an hour. The quiet and stillness of the morning was striking – not a soul stirring as I walked the short way into the nearby town of Vilarinho – but the air already had a tepid feel that bode ill for the many kilometres ahead, on what would prove to be a nine-hour walking day in baking heat. But I was not the first to rise: Vivek and Daniel, from the comfort of a private room, had hit the trail by 6.00 am, and we met over breakfast at Arcos a couple of hours later. What a day we had, somehow managing to stay hydrated in the face of the fierce sun and our non-stop banter.

I have had a request or two for a map – and so this is my crude response, with today’s walk in blue highlight and yesterday’s in pink, as the Camino path took me northwards from Porto . . .

. . . and this image, from my Brierley guidebook, shows today’s trek in more detail (Vairão is just off the bottom of the chart, south of Vilarinho, and we followed the orange dotted route northward to Barcelos)

Here are a few snaps of today’s highlights on the trail.

Fire in the sky as I left Vairão at dawn this morning . . .

. . . before taking a delightful path through the eucalyptus woods – the first time that the Camino has left a metalled surface since Porto

This abstract statue of St James stands in the main square of Vilarinho

. . . whilst the path itself suddenly revealed this tranquil vista of Santagões village across the medieval Ponte de Zameiro footbridge . . .

Detours on the path added a kilometre or two . . .

. . . and onward to the chapel in São Pedro de Rates – now with Daniel and Vivek

. . . where we came upon this repository for Camino tokens . . .

Wonderful walking (but for the noon-day heat)!

Our eventual welcome into Barcelinos . . .

. . . on the south bank of the Rio Cávado, overlooking our destination for the day, at Barcelos

Journey’s end, and so a change from water seems to be in order at the German Bar

I conducted a rough calculation of my water consumption for the day, and reckon I took in 4.5 litres of water (as well as a couple of morning coffees) – and I needed every drop. If I have a tip or two for hot-weather trekking, it is to force down twice as much water as one perceives necessary, and to wear a sun hat. Thus we all survived the trek to Barcelos without undue discomfort and survived to walk another day.

This diagrammatic map, from the wall of the Barcelos Tourist Office, shows the first stages of the Camino out of Porto

My promise of some more extensive notes on the Camino Portugués will need to wait a further day. I have rather taken to Barcelos, and it’s smaller sibling Barcelinos just across the Rio Cávado, and so I have decided to rest up here for two nights. I have an ulterior motive, namely a day trip to visit the ancient Portuguese city of Braga, less than an hour’s bus journey from Barcelos. I had planned two short Camino sections to following today’s marathon, but I am assured that one long day should be sufficient to put me back on schedule – so that is the plan I am going with – in the hope of catching Vivek and Daniel again further along the trail. But, as ever on the trail, who can tell what the future holds.

In the shade of a eucalyptus stand we came across the mythical Barcelos cockerel, a bird that is said to have risen, fully cooked from the oven, to rebuke a local judge on his erroneous decision to condemn an innocent man: the judge, in a fit of guilt, rose from his table and arrived at the gallows with seconds to spare, thus saving the man (and presumably the cockerel)

No prizes for guessing why I have chosen the song titled ‘Heat Wave’ for my Blog heading today. The world seems to be burning – Vivek tells me that Dubai (where he lives) was 39 degrees today and New Delhi (where he comes from) was 43 degrees. In the shade! So by those measures today’s walk, at 32 degrees, and even the UK in the mid-30s, might seem cool. ‘Heat Wave’, the song, was a hit for Martha and the Vandellas on the Motown subsidiary Gordy label, topping the US chart in summer 1963. Many other artists, including Linda Ronstadt and Phil Collins, have had a decent go at this Holland-Dozier-Holland number, but perhaps none have bettered the raw power of the original.

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