Steilküste, Portugal, great medication against November doom and gloom
Spent the second week of November in Portugal to escape the darkness and gloominess of Berlin. Berlin in November-March is truly horrible. Even more disgusting than the rest of the year. We went to a relatively lonely spot on the coast west of Lisbon, close to Cascais. A beautiful hotel built on the site of…
11 Almograve – Vila Nova de Milfontes
Home stretch! This was actually supposed to be shorter, but the ferry did not run (does not exist anymore) so we walked across the bridge at Milfontes after all. In a way, I was glad we did. Yes, it’s a few minutes with lots of cars passing you by (but safely separated, no worries), but…
10 Zambujeira do Mar – Almograve
Well, well, well. We enjoyed our last rest day in Zambujeira not doing much at all. Explored the beaches and parts of the coast to the North, ice cream, pastelaria, and a wonderful sunset. The day after saw us walking the last long stretch of our tour, along the coast to Almograve. This is really…
09 Odeceixe – Zambujeira do Mar
Leaving Odeceixe requires walking along a few km of road again, but fortunately there’s no traffic here – at least not in November as the road ends in a dead end at the northern side of the beach. I can imagine this being different during main season. It’s still a nice walk with the river…
08 Aljezur/Rogil – Odeceixe
Aljezur. The second-to-last stretch walking from Arrifana is along the road, so not too exciting, fortunately the last 20km are off road again. I was looking forward to reaching Aljezur for a couple of days because there’s a gelateria here that was open, according to their website. They were also open according to the sign…
07 Arrifana – Aljezur
Arrifana has an interesting layout, it’s a bunch of settlements that are layered like an onion. And if you’re on foot, it’s not so pretty to get from the ‘beach zone’ to the more inland zone (Vale da Telha). You have to walk on the road for a few km to reach this part and…
06 Carrapateira – Arrifana
The good thing about there being no breakfast in Carrapateira is that we got an early start! 😁 Also, There’s no need to follow the official detour route along the road, it’s easy easy to walk down to the beach and cross unless the weather is truly intimidating. It’s not only shorter but also soooo…
05 Vila do Bispo – Carrapateira
Vila do Bispo is not very exciting. We stayed at the Hotel Mira Sagres, which was ok but also offered the bleakest hotel room I’ve ever seen. But clean. On the plus side, there’s a fantastic restaurant in town, one of the best on this trip, especially for folks who don’t like to kill or…
04 Sagres – Vila do Bispo
Where there’s sunshine, there’s rain. We had already explored the coast around Sagres on our rest day and we didn’t feel like walking besides the road for 8km,so we took a taxi to Cabe São Vicente and started our hike from there. The Cabe is much hyped but physically disappointing. I get the geographical and…
03 Salema Beach – Sagres
One of the longest stages, also one of the most rewarding. Majestic cliffs, fine beaches, sun, wind, and waves. Another great stage, one of my faves so far! We took a little shortcut, you can walk from Praia da Figueira to Praia das Furnas on the beach if the tide and conditions are right. We…