Day 9 - Rota Vicentina to Cabo do San Vicente

Portuguese Shepherd

From Vila do Bospo to the end of the walk, the Cabo do San Vicente, is 14km. To avoid a simple repeat of the outward journey I walked the last Fishermen’s Way variant, which heads 6km along the coast from Cabo do San Vicente.  This variant is excellent which is just as well as the Historical route, the main route, is just a little dull.

The scenery on the main route has none of the valley walking I enjoyed on the previous two day's and spends most of its time crossing a huge open but fairly flat rock garden.  The multi-coloured vegetation, including broom, erica, lithodora lusitanica, rosemary and thyme provided some compensation on what would otherwise have been a pretty monotonous walk. I did meet a couple of shepherds, one of which was herding/shepherding a herd/flock of sheep/cattle/goats and was covered with an animal skin (not sure what type).  He was a bit bashful but the second let me take a picture of him.  I also met a couple of young Canadians who were walking up the Rota Vicentina and were trying to decide where to go in the summer.  Their short-list was the Alps or Iceland - not a difficult choice as far as I was concerned, so hopefully put them on the right track.

Day 8 - Rota Vicentina to Vila do Bispo

The most memorable feature of today’s walk was a beautiful, 11km long valley which made up the first half a 22km long walk.  After following a similar one yesterday, it’s clear that these lovely green valleys, running down to the sea, are a distinct feature of this part of Portugal.

Luxury at Casa Fajara in Carrapateira

Day 7 - Rota Vicentina to Carrapateira

After meandering around on Day 6 the route on Day 7 strikes decisively south. It’s a pleasant walk combining coastal and inland scenery with the best bits at the beginning and the end.  My initial aim, to combine the 24km Historic Trail section to Carrapateira with the 10km Carrapateira Fishermen’s Trail circular, ultimately proved a little too ambitious, but I think I managed to see the best bits.

Heading down to the Canal beach

Day 6 - Rota Vicentina to Arrifana

On Day 6 I combined the short Aljezur to Arrifana stretch along the Historical Route with Ponta da Atalaia element of the Fishermen's Trail to generate a varied 26km walk.  

Leaving Aljezur

Day 5 - Rota Vicentina to Aljezur

Odeceixe is the end point of a continuous stretch of Fishermen's Trail and the journey south is now on the Historic Trail that has arrived at Odeceixe from San Teotónio. It's not the end of the Fisherman's Trail however, and the green and blue waymarks return to mark a series of circuits that head west to the cliffs from the inland Historic Trail.

Leaving Aljezur

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

Day 1 - to Vila Nova de Milfontes on the Rota Vicentina

If the whole of the Fisherman's Trail is as good as Day 1 then we are in for a real treat, it's been a fantastic introduction to walking in Portugal.

Kick off at Porto Covo

Today's walk started at Porto Covo, a pretty village with lots of accommodation. We arrived by taxi after spending our first Portuguese night in Sines, the birthplace of Vasco de Gama, a cliff top town neatly surrounded by a massive oil refinery and container terminal.  It's not nearly as bad as it sounds, but we might have been better off staying at Porto Covo.

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.