Chuck's News: Day 10- Hiking the Fisherman Trail - Day 6 - Scheming, Plotting and Planning

Looking to the days ahead we noticed details we had not seen when we planned our hike on the macro level. After today’s hike the trail moves inland for three days and snakes through some low mountains. Lots of elevation change and fairly high milages, 14 or so. That combined with sketchy weather got us to conniving a new plan.

Today we were looking at a 14-15 mile day. A little farther than Sally is comfortable with. If only we could knock off 2 or 3 miles. How about a taxi ride back out to the coast? We have already walked the valley inland to Odeceixe. A ride out in the same valley would accomplish our goal. We talked to the pizza place girl behind the counter last night. She called someone, perhaps her brother from the way she admonished him to be here at 8:00am. We popped out of our place at 8:00 this morning and there he was. 10 minutes and 15 euro later and we are on the bluffs hiking south. Good move.

Now that we were in the mood of taxi rides, what do the regional bus routes look like? Maybe we could bus to Lagos, hole up for a day of bad weather, then bus back to our hike, but skip the inland slogs between Aljezur and Vila do Bispo. It would save us three days (with only two weeks left we are feeling a bit of a time crunch-silly huh?) and get us back on the coastal trails all the way into Lagos. To cement the deal we booked two nights in Lagos and two in Sangres.

The weather is not what we wish it were. It is supposed to rain hard on Tuesday night into Wednesday morning. We are taking a zero on Wednesday to avoid the rain (at least that is our plan for now in this fluid travel environment we are creating), hike Vila do Bispo to Sangre before the rain on Tuesday, hole up in Sangre Wednesday , have me hike from Sangre to Selema while Sally enjoys Sangre (the hike looks like it has some up and down scrambling along the coast, rated 5 of 5 for difficulty) on Thursday, then bus to Selema and hike to Luz on Friday and into Lagos on Saturday. This will require a bit of bus riding, but they are frequent and fast all over this region. See map below:

Of course, we might change our minds . . .

Our hike today started on the coast for the first three miles, then veered inland to the town of Rogelia. The coast was as magnificent as the last 50 miles. Towering cliffs, pounding surf, storks and nests, sandy beaches. I was hoping once we got inland that we might be sheltered from the wind by bushes and trees. No such luck. We walked straight into a 20 mph wind all the way to Rogelia. Once or twice we sought shelter behind a stand of trees to sit, rest and eat but all morning it was literally in our face.

Rogelia is a strip of a town with a highway passing down the middle. We walked 2/3rds of its length, looking for a cafe to sit in and have a Pepsi. Just as we made our turn to leave town we came upon a pizza place with indoor seating and a glass walled dining area. We enjoyed the moments out of the wind and a chocolate chip cookie. Sally had to settle for Coke, again.

20 minutes later we were on our feet and walking a long straight gravel road. About a mile out of town we ran into a couple from Finland about age 30. We hit it off immediately and stood talking for 20 minutes. They have plans to hike the PCT so of course we exchanged emails so we could trail angel them when they come through Washington.

It was gravel roads from there to Aljezur, our destination for the night. Just before entering town the road dropped steeply about 400 vertical feet, passed a dog boarding facility that looked questionably dirty and run down and onto the cobblestone streets for the final 3/4 miles into town.

Aljezur is a town with two parts and nothing in between. Well that is not quite true. In between is the Aljezur river and floodplain. The town has been here for thousands of years and people obviously know the river floods and therefore don’t build in the floodplain. We could learn from these folks. (I’m looking at you Walmart in Chehalis and all your other landfilled-in-brethren). We walked in on the western part of town and our hotel was on the eastern half. It was hard to get a measure of the size of the western part because it is built on a very steep hillside, complete with an Iron Age castle on the top.

We walked the other 1/2 mile across the valley to the Vicintini Hotel, a four star hotel!! We paid our 55€ at the front desk and had a lovely conversation with the demure and somewhat shy young desk clerk.

We collapsed on the comfy twin beds for half an hour rest, took showers and then headed to a very large supermarket, the first and only we have seen. We didn’t really need groceries for tomorrow as we were riding a bus to Lagos and not hiking, but they had a small lunch counter. We had bowls of cauliflower soup (1€ each) and a cheese sandwich (€1.20). We used the table and comfy space to plan out the next few days of travel that you have read about above.

Both of us were unreasonably tired. We walked back to our room, played on our phones for half an hour and were asleep by 9:00pm.

Coastal rock towers and multiple stork nests