Stage 6 — April 20: Aljezur to Praia de Arrifana (15 km)

17°C — Cool, cloudy with some blue skies

  

By Jim

After visiting the Castillo de Aljezur yesterday, we continued on to our accommodation only to find that Aum Home was half way to the end of our next stage.  Due to ravines, what was only 1-2 km as the crow flies turned out to be 7-8 km as the crow walks.  We opted to catch a taxi and found the distance to be further as the crow drives.  Anyway, we had decided to spend two nights here and walk today’s stage in a loop.

We woke up to rain and suited up to make a run to the grocery store for supplies.  The Mercado was doing booming business and after finding some food for supper and tomorrow’s breakfast, we fell into a line that snaked its way through the store.  At the till, we paid for the groceries and decided to have coffees and sandwiches on a covered terrace in order to wait out another shower.

We retraced our way back to the Aum Home, dropped off the groceries, and headed out for our day’s trek.  Praia de Monte Clerigo was 4 km away along an asphalt road.  The wind and rain were pleasantly cool and the clouds began to part as we joined a walking path at the beach.  Easter Sunday at an Algarve resort town was not what I expected.  All the restaurants and the beautiful beach were nearly empty.  

We combed the beach for heart-shaped stones to photograph (something Laurel needs for something??).  I found a couple of triangles that with some creative sand sculpting looked like hearts, but they did not pass her test.

We left town along the Fisherman’s Trail, finding the sandy path pleasant — close enough to the cliff edge to see the surf but far enough away to feel safe.  The path periodically intersected an access road where surfers parked their vans and set up base camps.  I’m not sure how they got to the beach (skydived?).

Our loop took us out around a peninsula of cliffs.  We clocked 15 km and made it back home in time for an early supper (late lunch).  

Stage 5 — April 19: Odeceixe to Aljezur (25 km)

17°C — Cool, cloudy with some blue skies

By Laurel

Today we opted for the “Historical Way” alternate route, instead of the path right along the coast (I felt like taking a break from the cliff sides).  It was a pleasant trail on farm and forest lanes, and was quite educational.

Heading out of town, up on the hilltop, we passed the “Minho de Odeceixe,” a traditional windmill built in the 19th century and typical in the Algarve region.  Positioning the windmills on the hilltops, such as this, took advantage of the stronger and more reliable breezes off the Atlantic to turn the cloth sails and grind the wheat and corn into flour and feed.  Today, modern wind turbines can be seen on many hilltops in the region.  What’s old is new again!

Speaking of typical Portuguese sights, we also wandered past numerous cork trees, with the bark stripped from the lower trunks.  The trees are a variety of oak native to Portugal;  60% of the world’s cork comes from here.  The bark is sustainably harvested every nine years with no damage to the tree, as the tree will grow new layers of bark and can live for up to 200 years.  Isn’t that fantastic!?  Here are some more fun facts about cork:

• Used for wine corks, floor and wall coverings, bulletin boards, shoes, purses, belts, etc. (versatile)
• Recyclable and biodegradable
• Thermal, acoustic, hypoallergenic, lightweight, water repellant

Looks like I’ll be shopping for cork products!

Though not something traditionally Portuguese, we also learned today about loquats.  The pale orange fruit was hanging over our path and looked juicy and tasty.  (That’s what Eve said, too, about a tempting fruit and that didn’t turn out so well ...)  Anyway, are they edible?  We recalled that our hostel hostess yesterday had invited us to help ourselves to a bowl of produce which contained lemons and these same orange fruits.  So off the tree beside our path, Jim plucked a specimen and took a bite, then passed it to me and I also took a bite.  Delicious!  We later found out, thanks to Google, that these are loquats or Japanese plums and are eaten fresh, juiced, or made into jam and pies.  But don’t ingest the pits … they are mildly poisonous.

In Aljezur, we feasted on a wonderful fish lunch topped off with a decadent dessert.  To wear off the calories and complete our history lessons for today, we hiked up to the Castle of Aljezur high above the riverside town.  Only the ruins of a tower and partial walls remain of the defensive structure which was used through the centuries, in turn, by Lusitanians, Romans, Visigoths, Arabs, Spanish, and Portuguese.  The castle was abandoned in the 15th century when peace came to the region.

   

Stage 4: Zambujeira do Mar to Odeceixe (23 km)

17°C — Rain showers with intermittent sun

By Jim

We set our alarm for 6:00 a.m. to get an early start, in order to avoid the heat of the day.  However, heat would not be an issue because it started to rain before we got out of town. Laurel tried out her new rain poncho. I was wet and envious as I had scratched my poncho in Canada to make room for my Leafs shirt.

Today we pushed ourselves to our limits and saw some strange and wondrous sights. The rain was steady when we approached the trailhead near the beach, south of town.  Two obstacles stood in our way.  The first was a creek.  The wet weather had transformed it from a shallow “hop, skip and jump” into a “slip, trip, and splash.”  As we pondered the low probability of a dry crossing, Laurel surveyed the obstacle that lay on the other side, a slick steep trail of slate and mud!  We both agreed that a detour was in order and Pocket Earth, our trail map app, dutifully guided us back to the FT after a bit of road walking.

The grey sky lightened, the rain stopped, and we fell into a routine of the trail that serpentined between breathtaking sandy shoreline cliffs and fragrant forests of wattle and eucalyptus.  While deep in the forest we had a surreal moment as ostrich, zebra, antelope, and llamas all came into view — we soon realized the trail was adjacent to a wild animal park.

Our second detour of the day came at the advisement of the Rota Vicentina Trust.  A portion of the cliffside trail had collapsed a year ago and was still unsafe, so the path now guided us along a 5 km stretch of pavement to the coastal village of Azenha do Mar.

After a second breakfast in a local bar (luckily it was open on Good Friday), we went to the beach to join the FT cliffside trail.  In hindsight, this should have been our third detour of the day but sunshine and sea breeze had dried out the path here, so we joined the queue of young fit Germans ascending the trail.  The path was designed by daredevil goats and we soon realized that we were not young, fit, or German (scheiße!).   Doubt lowered our confidence, as well as Laurel’s center of gravity, as she adopted a gekko-like posture and crawled her way to the summit propelled by a mixture of cortisol and adrenaline.  This was a harbinger for what would follow an hour later when the trail descended and ascended a steep, rocky gorge.  All I can say is, we made it and we are still speaking to each other.

Our final descent was gentle, as was the rain, when we walked into Odeceixe.  Monkfish stew and vinho verde at a small restaurant were restorative and our hostel provided a quiet haven for deep and peaceful sleep.

Stage 3: Almograve to Zambujeira do Mar (23 km)

18°C—Cloudy with intermittent sun, overcast later in the day

By Laurel

When we went to bed last night, it was overcast and pouring rain.  “Oh, oh,” I thought, “This doesn’t bode well.”  I don’t like to get soaked while hiking … it’s too hard to dry everything out … My fretting was for naught, as we awoke to blue sky with clouds and we did not get rained on at all throughout the day.  Except for two detours through trees, our route followed the coast very closely; at times we walked on the beaches and at other times we were scooting along on cliff tops with the surf crashing on rocks below us.  The path, even up on the cliffs, was very sandy, which gave our calves a workout.  Interesting sights of the day included a lighthouse and huge stork nests (complete with nesting storks) built on the rocks and cliffs jutting out into the ocean.  Seeing them made me wonder, “If storks deliver human babies, who delivers stork babies?”  I certainly wouldn’t want to do it, now that I’ve seen the location of their nest!

Stage 2: April 15 - Vila Nova de Milfontes to Almograve (10 km)

16°C—Sunny with intermittent cloud, rain in late afternoon

by Jim

Although today was to be only 15 km, our guidebook encouraged us to shorten it by taking a local family-run boat taxi across the Rio Mira, thereby cutting about three and a half km off our day.  We inadvertently saved an additional one and a half kilometers by foregoing the trail and detouring along the beach as far as possible.  The tide was out, inviting us to delay joining the trail.  We felt special on this exclusive route below the throng of walkers trodding the cliffs of the Rota Vicentina (Fishermen’s Trail FT) high above.  Rejoining the trail proved challenging.  Fortunately, some thoughtful souls had installed ropes to aid our steep ascent.

Up top, we merged with the steady stream of ramblers heading in both directions along the FT.  We have not seen this many walking enthusiasts since the Camino Francés in 2016.

Our day was brilliant!  The beaches, cliffs, ocean vistas, flowers and birds enlivened the pages of our guide.  Arriving in Almograve at 1:30 we had a delicious fish lunch and then a wild goose chase to find my lost walking pole, that I had left on a bench in the town square.  Alas, it stayed lost!  Our hosts at Marmequer Guest House provided three bottles of Portuguese liquor that helped me let go of my stick.  We hatched a plan to get an early start for tomorrow’s 22 km with two other guests, Hannah and Britta, a German mother and daughter couple.

A hearty breakfast of carbs and caffeine.

A boat taxi shortened an already short day.

Jim is but a dot on the expansive beach.

We had much of the beach to ourselves.

Getting back to the trail was a challenge.

The trail was well trodden with Germans, Brits, and Portuguese (and two Canadians).

The trail was also well marked.

Wild flowers were both vibrant and abundant.

Our reward at the end of the trail.

Stage 1: April 14 -15 - Air Canada Dreams

by Jim

On our way!  We left Canada on April 14 – Saskatoon to Toronto to Lisbon.  In the airport in Toronto it was great to see  Kerry and Gord from our Saskatoon Chapter and wish them Bom Caminho; they were traveling the same day to Lisbon but on all different flights than we were.  Once across the pond, we wasted little time in taking the metro to Sete Rios Terminal and catching a bus to Vila Nova de Milfontes, Stage 2 of the Fishermen’s Trail.

We (and by “we” I guess I mean Jim) forgot to take into account that we would spend a night on the plane, thus arriving in Portugal on April 15.  So between Air Canada’s Economy seating and periodic turbulence, we dreamt of picturesque Porto Covo and Stage 1’s twenty kms of “inviting beaches, dramatic cliffs, bright wildflowers, and hearty seabirds” (according to Gillian Price, author of the Cicerone Guidebook).

Goodbye Canada (April 14th)

Hello Portugal (April 14 +1)