Aljezur up to Porto Covo and Sines
Willeke, my caminho partner is back! This is the 3rd time she comes to Portugal to discover caminho-routes with me.
She is fond of walking, and Portugal keeps captivating her too!
Last year, end of June, we walked the south part of the Fishermen’s trail from Lagos to Arrifana. It was getting very hot. We experienced that it is better to plan before the heat from July arrives. Temperatures over 30 degrees is a bit too much. Read about our hottest day on the trail here. This time we will see what May does. The Algarve and Alentejo regions are amazingly beautiful but terribly hot too.
The photo is taken on the trail from Sagres to Carrapateira in April when I went with two 10-year olds!
Last year we walked without reserving the hostels. It was fine, but now we have seen the small villages, we know that there are not a lot of albergues. When there is a group bikers or walkers, it is full in no time. There are some hotels in the villages but sometimes they have lots of stars which make the price a little bit too high. In April with Eastern holidays all was full too when I walked the south part with Cinta. We met a few pilgrims who didn’t book. They were very surprised that they didn’t find accomodation in some of the villages. They could stay for example in Sagres for two days and walked further with a taxi who drove back to Sagres. The Uber works well along the trail!
This time Willeke and I booked all the accomodation upfront.
From Sines to Lisbon?
A lot of fervent walkers like to walk further from Sines to the start of the caminho in Lisbon. I did some research for a coastal path to Lisbon. It is not really possible. The advise was to go inland to Santiago de Cacem, and then it is the caminho from Algarve to Santiago de Compostela. I will do that once I need to go back to Lisbon. There were two pilgrims from Canada staying at our place who walked via the coast from Sines to Lisbon. They told me their stories, and it was a NO, don’t do it. It is possible to walk but better not do it. I trust them. They were very fit and trained and still they didn’t recommend it!
This time after the 6 days walk to Sines, I will go by bus back to Lisbon and Coimbra.
Bus From Lisbon Orient to Aljezur
Aljezur has a small busstation. From Lisbon we go together to the Algarve. The day after we will walk.
We will go from:
* Aljezur to Odeceixe 22,5 km
* Odeceixe to Zambujeira do Mar 18,5 km
* Zambujeira to Mar Almogarve 22 km
* Almogarve to Vila Nova de Milfontes 15 km
* Vila Nova de Milfontes to Porto Covo 20 km
* Porto Covo to Sines 20 km
Who knows I will do this same track very soon again with Cinta and Jaap-Willem. From what I heard and read, it is not as demanding (climbing up and down) as the first south part. However, it is a lot of sand, which makes it very heavy. In the following blogs I will tell more detailed about every caminho day.
