Trail de Ladeia

Via the Mill and Casa da Lima!

Every year, on a Sunday in October, the popular Trail de Ladeia runs through our village and Ladeia-Alvorge. Now I see the route passing the mill and our house!
It’s said to be one of the best-organized trails in Portugal, attracting participants from all over the country. There’s music, food, lunch, and drinks. What more could we want?

Runners can choose from distances of 13, 18, 24, or 50 km, while walkers can join the 10 km caminhada. On the Saturday before, there’s also a Kid’s Run for children aged 6 to 15 years a real competition where they could win lots of candies and a trophy. Also there is a table full of hearty snacks and later the run the table is exchanged for one with sweets.

3rd Time!

This year marks the third time we’re participating, and Cinta is joining the Kid’s Run. She needs to defend her golden trophy, which she’s won twice already. This year, she’ll have to run 500 meters more—1500 meters in total. Kind of tough I think for an 8-year old.
During our dinner I hear that Cinta strained her ankle during the run and she was in tears at that moment. With Dine and Sabine, our Dutch pilgrims she is very happy, and forgot about it already.
We’ll try again next year.

3 Pilgrims and a Runner

When I arrive at Casa da Lima from my caminho, I see the Casinha is fully booked. There are two Dutch ladies, a German guy, and just now, a Portuguese man reserved via Booking. He is by car. That is rare, so he is not a pilgrim. I talk to him and he is running the trail tomorrow! Jaap-Willem did a wonderful job taking care of our pilgrims, but I need to help him now. He is cooking and I need to explain the pilgrims some things.

After walking a caminho for a week, I thought it would be a challenge to do the trail with blisters, but it was easy, may be because I had a good training beforehand. The blisters were healed already.
After 5 km, there was a stop with music, food, and drinks. Later, we enjoyed a nice lunch and more drinks. It really feels like a festa! In the midst of hundreds of people, I run into our Portuguese pilgrim—oh no, runner—who stayed at Casa da Lima yesterday!

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