Day 4 - Rota Vicentina to Odeceixe

The stretch of walking from Zambujeira do Mar to Odeceixe has been the best of  four excellent days of cliff top walking. The only slight downer was the final 3km road walk into Odeceixe but this was a small price to pay for what was otherwise a great walk.

Leaving Zambujeira do Mar

Day 3 Rota Vicentina to Zambujeira do Mar

Another stunning cliff top walk on which, at last, we get to see the fishermen that give this stretch of the route its name.  Other outstanding features included the colours of the some of the rocks, intensely rusty,  colours of some ancient desert and the cormorants who were as death defying as the fishermen.  In total the walk was 22km long, a little longer than yesterday, the first half was better than the second.

A fisherman on the Fishermen's Trail

Day 2 - Rota Vicentina to Almograve

Another day on the Fishermen's trail and no real let up on the quality of the walking, Day 2 was almost as good as Day 1.  After a bit of road walking to cross the bridge over the Rio Mara it was pure excellence all the way.

Today's walk was slightly shorter (18km) than Day 1 but we compensated by making extremely slow progress along often sapping sandy paths.

Although cliff top walks continue to dominate, the route does occasionally slice off headlands and dive inland.  When it does it sometimes disappears into dense undergrowth and through tunnels made up of huge Acacia bushes which at the moment are in full flower and bright yellow.  

Acacia Tunnels

Rota Vicentina

Shortening the cold, dark north European winter is becoming an ever more important objective for me and despite a January trip to Burma, I was getting desperate for some sustained good weather by the end of February.  I couldn't afford another long haul trip and after looking at its excellent website, the Rota Vicentina in SW Portugal seemed like the ideal alternative.