(Strictly for nature nerds.) As you can imagine you spend most of your time looking at the landscape during a month-long trek. But you also spend a significant amount of time staring at your feet.
Southern Portugal is a sandy environment, and like much of Utah (and Banff ski trails after a snowfall), you can see who has passed this way before you.
I didn’t actually spot many of these creatures (aside from the ants. ) But I did see one creature repeatedly, especially in the eucalyptus forests — oil beetles. I like peering at insects, but these large black beetles with bloated abdomens that they drag behind — well, only a mother beetle could love them!
Oil beetles have an amazing life story. As larvae, they climb a flower head, and wait for a bee to arrive. While the bee is busy, they grab a leg and hang on until the bee returns to the hive. Once there, the beetle larvae morphs into a grub and grows fat feasting upon bee babies until it breaks out of the hive to become a beetle.
These charmers are also called blister beetles because they exude a noxious substance when threatened, which can cause (you guessed it) blisters. Lovely!
The most common tracks on the trails were those made by humans.
Lest you think I only commune with insects, I did meet some lovely fellow human travellers. There was the Canadian couple who sang the Song of the Mira with me as we waited for the ferry in Vila Nova de Milfontes. Gabrielle from Italy who was beginning a three-month trek across Portugal and Spain. And Elsa and Astrid from Sweden who stayed in the same hostels as I did for several nights. We chatted over wine on several evenings discussing everything from books (they were fans of Margaret Atwood) to our respective countries treatment of Indigenous peoples. I’m kicking myself they I didn’t get their contact information.
I am writing this final post as I wait to board my flight in Lisbon. Hard to believe I will be home later today.