Hiking through Castellón

If you're a walker like me who is looking a challenge, somewhere different and not yet 'fashionable', and a route that takes you through great scenery to special places to sleep at the end of each day's hike than my suggested itinerary for Castellón should be interesting.  It combines remote walking (not hard in Spain) along ancient but largely abandoned footpaths with visits to a series of stunning hilltop towns. It's accessible from the UK and elsewhere (fly into Valencia or Barcelona) and a hike can be combined with visits to the wonderful cities of Tarragona and Valencia. It's easy to self-organise and the accommodation and food are excellent, interesting and great value.

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