Category Archives: portugal

A taste of Portugal

As Geoff was going to be home for around 10 days between his 2 big cycling trips to Sri Lanka and South Korea/Japan, I thought it would be a good Idea to do some multi day hiking again.

The plan was to go to Portugal and walk the Fisherman’s Trail BUT before we even left cambridge we realised that to do this we should be flying to Lisbon not Faro, so we changed our plans.

The new plan was to start our walking in Sagres and make our way along the coast using the GR13 and GR11 trails,another mistake we made was expecting it to be warm,at times the strong winds made it feel very cold.

Anyway we managed 6 days of walking and covered around 80 miles, we even had a days walking along the fisherman’s trail which as expected was amazing , so although it may not have been as warm as we expected  the sun did shine , the scenery was awesome and the wild flowers were beautiful, I also loved spending a week with Geoff.

The beach’s in Portugal are also very beautiful, I think we saw them at there best, out of season and empty ! The beach at Carrapateira was especially amazing with its boarded walks, its a must visit place if you ever find yourself in Portugal as well as the beach at Praia De Monte Clerigo.

The other thing not to miss is the traditional Portuguese tart or Pastel De Nata, they are delicious and we consumed many.

Within days of being back Geoff was off on his next trip but I have things to look forward too, some multi day biking together, maybe on the North sea cycle route and a 200km Audax ,both good training for my Lap of Anglia ….. but first its the LDWA Daffodil dawdle

The Fisherman’s Trail

In March Geoff will be home from Sri Lanka for 23 days and we are going to Portugal for a week of walking.

He then goes off to South Korea for another 6 weeks of biking,after that I hope he will be home long enough to do some biking with me !

We have decided to walk some of the Rota Vicentina which is a network of walking trails, 400km in total, comprising the Historical and Fisherman’s trail along the SW coast.

After doing some research I discovered that we was actually planning to walk it in the wrong direction and would miss the best 4 days of walking.

So now we shall start In Porto Covo and head to Odeceixe along the Fisherman’s trail

Day one… Porto Cova to Milfontes 20km

Day two…. Milfontes to Almograve 15km

Day three…. Almograve to Zambujeira 22km

Day four…. Zambujeira to Odeceixe 18km

and to finish off  a beach circuit at Odeceixe

You can then join the Historical way and carry on walking to Cabo de San Vicente but we wont have time for this as its just a short trip, but it will be lovely to spend time with Geoff and see some sun.