Guys, I'm very behind on the blog. October and November were intense months and I ended up forgetting to tell you about Odemira and then there was the trip down the Douro.

In this blog here I will talk about Odemira and in another story about Douro.

It was 30km of rowing in 4 hours and 30 minutes. Yes, a long time, longer than it should have been. Within that time, you are considering the stops.

For those who only row, they don't know that there is a before and an after.

On Friday we had a class until 12:30, from the Marina we took the trailer in the parking lot where she keeps the canoes and went to Odemira which is about 2 hours by car from Lisbon.

When we got there, we assembled the two canoes. We only had the help of one of the students, José Faria. Everything was assembled around 7 pm and we went to eat.

Zé suggested a restaurant nearby. He also suggested a fish soup from Alentejo, which was simply wonderful. With our bellies full, we went to the campsite in Milfontes (30 minutes by car from Odemira).

The idea was to set up the tent, but how could we do that after a day like that? Impossible. We were already tired and we still had 30km to row the next day.

We rented a bungalow, took a shower and had a bed. We didn't even go out to enjoy the city with another student, nor did we enjoy the bungalow.

The next day, we had a hearty breakfast in Milfontes and left for Odemira by Uber.

Canoes assembled, beautiful sunny day and no wind, unlike the previous day.

The group was great, there were those who had already rowed many kilometers and were excited and there were those who were tense with the new experience. But we had a fun group.

The first 10km were as expected, still waters, no wind, pleasant silence, beautiful landscape.

With 20km to go, out of nowhere, unforeseen, a headwind came in. At first it was all fun and games: "what's that wind?", "where did that come from?", "let's go in the corner where there's no wind." After a while, the silence returned, only our voices, the focus changed and became rowing against the wind. We were 20km from the sea and we still had small waves because the wind was so strong.

We made a long stop on a deck we found and everyone had that look on their face that said "I'm loving it and at the same time "what am I doing here?".

and there we went, following the path and arriving at Milfontes, it was pure emotion.

That feeling of overcoming, of yes we did it, yes we are mentally strong, yes we have all the pain in our body but we are happy, very happy for what we managed to do, to achieve.

The whole group dismantling the canoes and loading the trailer. It was beautiful.

After changing clothes, having a snack to celebrate the achievement, we set off on the road to Lisbon.

We arrived in peace and with our hearts filled with joy!