Portugal and the Rota Vicentina

The hardest part of the trip came when we had to say goodbye to our kids at Bali. We won't be seeing them for six months. Made, the driver, took them to the airport so they could fly home then four hours later he returned and took us there. The funny thing was that I couldn't walk the long distances to the planes so I had to get pushed in a wheelchair! I felt like a complete invalid. It was an interesting way to get around though. We took short-cuts and got put to the front of queues.

It was an 8 hour flight to Dubai where we broke the journey up by staying the night. Then it was back onto a plane again for another long flight to Portugal. 

Our route took us over some really interesting places but sadly there was cloud cover a lot of the way. The clouds cleared though as we crossed spectacular snow-covered mountains in what was probably south-western Turkey. 

We approached Lisbon from the air in the late afternoon and it was so pretty! Huge beach-lined bays curved gracefully along the coast, ending in stunning cliffs. We flew right in over the city where pastel-coloured buildings with matching orange-tiled rooves lined up in rows. It was a great end to the flight.

We had booked a small apartment hotel and it was fantastic. It had clearly been recently renovated and was really comfortable with a wonderful young lady running it. Much to our delight there were two special welcome gifts for us - port and Portuguese tarts! Both were delicious and much appreciated!

My ankle prevented me from exploring the city like we had planned but I did see amazing jacaranda tree-lined streets nearby.

We had some fabulous meals and from what we saw of the city it looked great. We'll be back again later anyway so we focussed on getting the walk organised.

The walk we are doing is called the Rota Vicentina. There are two options - the Fisherman's Trail which runs mostly along the coast and the Historical Way which runs mostly inland. We are doing a combination of both. Both walks go for about for about 250kms travelling south, ending up at the south-western point of Europe. There are no set places to stay. Hikers just book hotels or whatever is available along the way. There aren't many good options so we booked a long time ago. This turned out to be a problem because it made it harder to change our plans now that I've hurt my ankle. We decided that John would walk and I would catch a taxi/bus/whatever between the towns until I could walk again.

We caught a bus to Santiago do Cacem, our starting point. Along the way we passed many of Portugal's famous cork trees. These are a type of oak and the bark is cut from them to make corks for wine bottles. The bark then re-grows. It was weird to see the bark stripped off trees yet the trees stayed alive. There were also lots of a type of pine that looked like the pine-nut trees that we've planted at home. I later found out that this is what they were. There were so many of them! 

Fortunately we had left a lot of our gear in our Lisbon accommodation because poor John had to carry everything from the bus to our hotel. One thing about booking accommodation so far ahead is that we don't remember every place and it's sometime a bit of a surprise when we arrive.  Our hotel here turned out to be a large 3-story place with a pool and spectacular views over the pretty town. The nearby hill was crowned with an old castle and a church. 

As the sun set it looked even more spectacular.

We woke early the next morning and opened the curtains to the amazing sight of the full moon setting behind the old town as the sky was getting lighter.

And then it all changed again as the sun rose.

John's great with languages and is quickly remembering Portuguese from when we were in Brazil years ago. This one had us stumped though - it was written on a door and is pronounced similar to 'Push'. Take one guess what it means. Yep - 'Pull'.

Day one of the walk was a perfect day for walking - low 20's and sunny. John wasn't fit enough to do the whole walk that day so we arranged a taxi that first took us to the castle above the town. It had been wonderfully restored and afforded good views of the country around it. We then dropped John off a few kms in and he walked to our next accommodation from there. I could see he would be walking through forests of cork trees. I was so jealous! 

He started his walk at the ruins of an old convent.

Heading off on the first leg.

While John hiked, the lovely taxi driver took me to our accommodation which was out in the middle of nowhere but was a perfect location for hikers as there weren't many towns around. 

We were staying in an old fazenda - a traditional Portuguese farmhouse, partly converted for accommodation. Now the farm was mostly a huge, somewhat overgrown garden with lots of pine nut trees planted around. Much to my surprise there were also two windmills that weren't that dissimilar to Greek ones. I suppose the two countries aren't that far apart and both nationalities are traditionally big sea travellers. 

There were cork trees here too. The number painted on the trees indicated the year that they can be harvested again. I think it's every 8 years. Where the bark changes colour is where the bark was harvested to.

Previously harvested cork was still stacked on the ground. It felt so light!

The two French people staying there were lovely and we had a good chat over dinner. I felt like I had a cold coming on though so I kept my distance.

We organised a taxi again the next day and I took the bags and myself to the next destination, Cercal de Alentejo, while John walked. Our accommodation was lovely. Set in an area of small farms, there were black sheep next door, tractors chugging around paddocks, hay being cut and the whole area was dotted with whitewashed farmhouses. So gorgeous! Unfortunately, I soon started to feel very unwell. It soon became blatantly obvious that I had covid. A test a few days later confirmed it. 

Luckily, the room was comfy and Nelson, the owner, was wonderful. Nelson took John out to get pizza for us as the town was too far away to bring take-aways back from. John found a delicious bottle of muscat for 6 euros and that was our dessert. I lost both my sense of taste and my appetite for the next couple of days so this was a meal to savour even if I felt like crap.

Over these few days, all I saw of the trip was the inside of our rooms and the inside of my eyelids. I felt terrible but we had to move on as everything was pre-booked. While John walked, Nelson let me stay far beyond normal checkout time then bravely drove me to our next destination, a town called Sao Luis. Again, our little airbnb was lovely and the English-speaking owner, who I had pre-warned about my covid, was very helpful. I was eternally grateful for comfy beds and kind owners at this stage. 

I needed some things from the pharmacy the next day and it was only 400 metres away so I ventured outside for the first time in a few days (I wore a mask and the airbnb owner had ordered the items for me). This was the first time I'd seen anything of these gorgeous little towns set in lovely rural surroundings. It was beautiful!

You've got to love a town where the streets are lined with orange trees! The oranges in Portugal have been the best I've eaten anywhere. I guess that makes sense as we're not that far from Seville, in Spain, home of the orange.

We really loved these rural towns. Old men wearing caps wandered around and the occasional tractor drove slowly through the streets. It often felt like we had stepped back a few decades in time.

The next town, called Odemira, was larger than the others and it was immediately obvious that it had many Indians and Nepalis living there. From what we've learnt so far, it's quite easy to be allowed to live in Portugal. Immigrants then use it as a stepping stone to get into other parts of Europe. I kept ordering Indian food so at least I could taste something!

Indian laundry in a Portuguese town.

John headed out on his own to check out the town in the evening. Within 10 minutes of him leaving he had found a friendly bar where the barman spoke English and there was 50% proof booze made from the fruit of the cliff-hugging wild strawberry tree. Just begging to be tasted.

He was walking further each day and going really well along mostly beautiful paths and small dirt roads through forests and farmland. There were so many eucalyptus trees in places that he felt like he was walking in Australia! It was the dying days of spring and hay was being cut.

The Mira River.

John found this sign in a rare shady spot one hot day. Someone was showing some entrepreneurial spirit!

The world's slowest taxi driver took me to where John's walk finished, and then took us both on to Zambujeira do Mar, on the coast. As soon as we stepped out of the taxi the town felt different. It was clearly a holiday town. That lost-in-time, country feeling was gone and it was replaced with a more touristy, holiday vibe which wasn't bad. It's not high season yet and the streets are largely empty. Our apartment is huge and has great views overlooking the ocean. This turned out to be a bigger blessing than we realised because - you guessed it - John got covid.

It became obvious that John couldn't continue the walk so, after much planning, we cancelled the next run of accommodation and decided to stay put. Luckily the apartment we're in was available so we booked an extra six days on top of the two we already had organised.

As I write this, we're only a few days in. I'm feeling a little better and am able to go for short, slow walks occasionally. I have to wear a mask or stay away from people though as I'm still testing positive. As John gets worse, I'm now returning the favour and am going out getting food for him instead of the other way around. I'm sure glad we're not travelling alone!

It took me a few days to realise what a perfect location we are in for a couple of sick people. There are spectacular walks only a few hundred metres long in both directions from our doorstep. John has named the place "Flu with a View"!

To our right is a boardwalk out to a peninsula with views over the sea and crazily folded rocky cliffs.

To our left is the town. A large paved area juts out over the sea with a whitewashed church perched on it. 

From the area in front of the church you can look across a huge bay where people swim, surf and sunbake. Jagged rocks erupt out of the ocean, breaking up the vast expanse of sea.

So far the town has been pleasant enough. There are plenty of Indians and Nepalis here and I've still been eating Indian food to try to taste something. We've never seen so many Nepalis in any country outside of Nepal. It's so strange!

The temperature is consistently in the low 20's or so - perfect for walking. Seeing the small bits that I have, I think we're going to have to come back another time and try this walk again. It looks amazing!

Hooroo.

Heather and John