When I walked the Camino de Santiago for the second time, several years ago, the last part seemed more like a parade than a nice quiet hike. I decided to look for other long distance trails to walk for a few days or weeks. Italy offered that opportunity with a 400k section of the Via Francigena through Tuscany. Then I learned about the Rota Vicentina, a trail network in south western Portugal that was fairly new (2012) and not so crowded yet.

The Rota Vicentina offers several different routes. The one that appealed most to me was the Fisherman’s trail along the Atlantic coast from Porto Covo, south of Lisbon, to Cabo des Vicente, approximately 225 km. Always by the sea, it follows the paths used by locals to access beaches and fishing grounds. It is a single track walkable only on foot, along the cliffs, with lots of sand and therefore quite demanding from a physical point of view.

I found a company in The Netherlands that arranged accommodations along the route and, if you wanted to, will take your luggage from point to point. Since I injured my shoulder last year when I walked across Holland with a pack that was too heavy, I decided for the first time in my life not to carry my own pack the entire way and made use of the luggage service.

To get to the start of the trail you can fly into Lisbon and take a public bus to Porto Covo. I decided to start inland from the town of Cercal do Alentejo, since the local representative of the Dutch hiking company is located there, and it is only a day’s hike from there to Porto Covo on the coast.

The hotel at Cercal was quite nice, very quiet in the middle of nowhere with cold beer, good food and friendly staff. The weather in mid September is very nice in Portugal with temperatures in the 20’s C and because it is along the coast it usually is a bit windy. But on rainy days it can get challenging along the edge of the Atlantic coast.

The first day of hiking was exactly as described in the brochure: a relaxing walk of about 20-23 km. The first half took me through rolling hillside and later through and up into a commercial eucalyptus forest. The first 3-4 hours I only met three other hikers and a few (chained) dogs.

The trail is well marked. Yellow and red stripes reflect the Historic Trail, another one of many different hikes available in the area. The markings for the Fisherman’s trail are green/blue and easy to follow. I did use my AllTrails app frequently to make sure I was on the right track. Google Maps also helped.

I discovered that much of the way I also was following the familiar signs for the Camino de Santiago, which runs south to north through Portugal. The trail is mostly on gravel pathways, logging roads, farm roads and not until you get to Porto Covo do you end up walking on pavement. There are some soft spots with deep sand, but that is just to warn you for the day 2 section, which takes you along the coast over high cliffs and down to the beach, where there is little else but deep sand.

After about 15 km I got the first glimpse of the actual coastline and it is all ‘downhill from there’. It gets busier with traffic and eventually I walked into Porto Covo - a pretty, small village, typically touristy with very little to do during the afternoon when most stores and restaurants are closed. Those will open again by late afternoon when I have a choice of places to eat.

What a difference a day can make on this trail. While the first day was an easy 20 km stroll through the Portuguese countryside, Day 2 was a horrendous hiking experience on par with my worst day on the West Coast trail on Vancouver Island in British Columbia Canada. It rained cats and dogs almost the entire way, 22 km with a strong southerly wind and driving rain in my face. But the worst part was the condition of the trail itself - with boots sinking into soft sand and because it all was wet it was heavier than molasses. Up and down sand dunes, down to the beach with no solid sand anywhere and back up into the dunes. It was too much for some people and I later heard that some of the long distance hikers had taken a taxi to avoid this section in the rain. I encountered a couple of girls sitting by the side of the trail in tears not able to get much further. I don’t know how they got out. This section of the Fishermen’s trail is supposed to take between 6 and 8 hours, I did it in 5 hrs because there was no place to sit down and escape the wind and driving rain. Regardless of the quality of your equipment you get soaked through and the final destination of a warm hotel room could not appear soon enough in Milfontes. It was the kind of day that makes you question your sanity for wanting to walk a long distance trail anywhere in the world.

However, everything was forgotten and forgiven when day three dawned with lovely sunshine and nothing but, initially, easy walking. First I had to get out of town, across a large bridge, but then walked along agricultural fields and through nice treed areas. However, after a couple of hours that changed and I was back to slogging through ankle deep soft sand, but at least it wasn’t raining. And after a few hours you get used to the slow pace.

The views were fantastic today. At almost every turn of the trail gave awe-inspiring views of beaches, cliffs and thundering waves crashing on the beach and cliffs. But, just like yesterday, you better not be scared of heights because in many places the trail is only inches away from 200'-300’ drops down to the Atlantic Ocean. As a park manager in North America I questioned the safety of this trail on numerous occasions and locations. Only the trail down and out of the Grand Canyon in Arizona reminds me of the conditions this hike has to offer.

Some people who did not wear ankle high boots would take their running shoes off and walk in bare feet because too much sand got into their shoes. At times I had to navigate through shrubbery that only left a narrow low clearance and would catch on a tall backpack. It was supposedly one of the easier days on the Fisherman’s trail and the town of Almograve offers several nice hotels and restaurants to relax after this relatively easy hike.

The first few hours of Day 5, I followed an irrigation canal. But since it wasn’t flowing very fast, it probably did not have more than 1% fall and that made for easy flat walking. After I left the canal I came through a little village where I could sit down and have a drink. However after that the temperatures climbed into the 20’s and since there was no shade anywhere, it got rather uncomfortable. Fortunately I managed to get to the next stop at around 2 PM so I missed the hottest part of the day.

It is strange, but the trail guide and my iPhone are showing different routes and distances at times. Supposedly I would have been following the coast for a little while, but I was quite a ways inland. Even yesterday’s distance showed in one guide book as 22 km and on my phone as 18. Same thing today. My TRAIL app shows me that I will be walking through most of the backcountry. But the guide describes today’s walk as going along towering cliffs with beautiful views. But even the map in the guide book contradicts the description and only shows you arriving back at the coast at the very last minute when you reach the next hotel.

I am glad I am not using hostels on this hike because the jetlag does not seem to be going away and I sometimes go to bed at 7 or 8 PM and wake up at 5 or 6 AM. That might have been a bit of a problem in a hostel, I think. The difference in hotels is considerable. At times it is a rinky-dink little room in the attic, while today is a luxurious suite with a separate sitting area, kitchen, bedroom etc.

I seem to loose track of how many days I have walked and still will be walking. But yesterday was Day 6 if I am not mistaken. I have ‘kind of’ lost the Fisherman’s trail because I have seen enough of the coast and a shorter route between the two villages where I am staying overnight is via the Historic Trail. It runs more inland than along the coast and it is part of the entire Rota Vicentina trail system that was developed over the last 10-15 years. However I can’t say that it is a very interesting trail. The terrain is rather monotonous, it is hilly which still makes it a challenge but the vegetation is rather the same everywhere. Other than the coastal area I can’t say I am impressed with hiking in Portugal. I rather walk the Pieterpad in The Netherlands because it has so much more small scale variety with a different look and different villages every few kilometers.

Still Portugal is one of the top destinations for North American ‘escapees’. Together with Panama and Costa Rica, Portugal is a favourite country for people looking for a nice, quiet cheap retirement place away from north west Europe or North America. In addition to the many ruins of fallen down farms there are beautiful mansions in the country side that obviously have cost an arm and a leg to develop. The cost of living here is low compared to North America. Meals can be had for half the price of a meal elsewhere, taxis are cheap, overnight accommodations are also not expensive. So it is understandably an attractive alternative for many people. One of the drawbacks I find is the language. Portuguese is difficult to master I have been told (I have not even tried). It does not sound like anything else and only the younger generation speaks some English. Fortunately in the touristy areas there are usually a few people who will be able to speak it somewhat. But that is also the charm of traveling.

Anyway, today is another day of at least 18km and that is enough in the heat of 27-28 degrees.

The last three days of the Trail are certainly not as interesting as the first 4-5 days. Day 7 was a very long and lonely hike through the backcountry of Portugal. Lots of hills to climb and go down, vegetation rather similar everywhere, but what stood out most were the enormous areas that had burned either this summer or last year. It’s very sad to see whole fields with crops all blackened, burnt farm houses abandoned. All together a sad sight.

Day 8 was not much different, I needed to walk quite a bit along a highway which is no fun. So I took a taxi! Day 9 took me into Sagres, the end point of the entire hike. Again along a highway, but this time there was a dirt path off the highway through the adjacent fields and that made it easier. However, the temperatures started to get up into the 30’s and that made today’s hike a bit harder.

Finally I did find the bus station in Sagres and manage to buy the second to last ticket for the bus the next day. Onwards home.

All together it has been a very interesting experience. I am not sure I would recommend this trail unless you just walk the first 4-5 days of the hike. The local organizers took the experience of what Spain did with the Camino and tried to replicated it in south western Portugal with some success, but since there is no religious overtone as with the Camino, it is just the beautiful landscapes that make the attraction. The tourism industry is thriving as a result of a world wide campaign to attract people. But the original initiative takers are now concerned that the same might happen here as what has happened on the Camino and that its success is killing the goose that lays the golden egg.

Time will tell.

RESOURCES:

I booked the walk and accommodations via: Pelgrimroutes.nl

Rota Vicentina: https://rotavicentina.com/

All Trails: https://www.alltrails.com/