Chuck's News: Day 14 - Hiking the Fisherman Trail - Day 10 - Sunrise, Sunset

We are positioned in a unique place in the world, both geographically and in time. It is winter in the northern hemisphere, so the sun rises in the southeast and sets in the southwest. Geographically, we are positioned on the southwest coast of Portugal. These two elements came together to create a unique experience for me today.

I was up at 6:30am, although I was awake an hour before. I had gone to bed at 9:30pm so 5:30am had given me eight hours of sleep following a day with little physical activity. A couple boiled eggs for breakfast some bread and cheese, banana and orange for lunch and I was out the door.

For the first time in a week the forecast was for sun with no wind. At 7:00am when I started walking I couldn’t tell if the sky was clear or not. The dawn had brightened the sky to the point that if there were stars up there they had been washed out and the sun was not up yet to let me see the sky. Being right on the coast the air was very moist even though the temperature was 58°.

The first 15 minutes was a walk back through town. Not a person was up, not a car moving. At the end of town the trail dropped to the beach for 1/4 mile. I had my head down, watching my foot placements. When I looked up I was surprised to see the sun coming up out of the ocean. Really? There? I had thought it would be over the land in front of me. A quick check of the map showed the coastline angling to the north of east. With the winter sun slightly to the south of east it made sense. How cool is that!! Back home it was 11:30pm. I texted Andy to see if he was awake. He was. We FaceTimed. He takes off tomorrow at 1:30pm his time for Norway and a northern lights photography class with Tabitha.

At the end of the beach was an abrupt, scrambling climb to gain the bluffs. For the next eight miles the trail stayed close to the bluff’s edge with more fantastic views of the rocky shoreline and surf. It dropped down to beaches a couple times. At each I found surfers out riding waves in the spectacular sun.

At eight miles the trail angled out to a bluff with a big view back to Sagres. I FaceTimed Sally to let her know all was okay. She had been working on reserving rooms for the remainder of our tour of Portugal-Porto, Fatima, Nazare, Coimbra and Sintra.

The last five miles to Salema had four big drops from bluff top to beach so that by the end of the day I had climbed and descended about 1600’.

This was the first sunny day we had seen in a week. Not a cloud in the sky, no wind, about 69°. Absolutely perfect. Of course, not having experienced sun for a week and leaving before it had come up, I did not put on sun screen. And since Sally carries it, I had none to put on.

At about 10:30 I tucked my handkerchief under my baseball cap with it draped down the back of my neck and on the sun side of my face to lessen what I was sure would turn out to be an outsized sunburn. At the bottom of one of the hills, near a beach I found a man working on his pack. I asked if he could share his sunscreen. Without hesitation he said yes and got out an aerosol can of sun block. We chatted as I dabbed it on my face, ears and arms. We hiked off together and got talking about hiking and life in general. He was a HR director for a big firm in Lisbon, but is taking a sabbatical for a year. His name is Vasco. We both had apps with the trails of the area on them, but his seemed to have more detail. We stayed close to the water, often off the established trail. At one point our trail withered to nothing at the cliffs edge and we had to bush wack 75 yards back to the Rota Vicintini trail. He knew I had a bus to catch and said I had better go, so we separated with only about a mile and a half to Salema.

I walked through Salema to the bus stop, halting momentarily at a small grocery store for a Fanta orange drink. Even though the seashore in town was spectacularly beautiful I thought my face had seen enough sun for the day. I walked up to the bus stop and sat in its shady interior to eat my lunch and wait the hour and twenty minutes for the bus.

Vasco showed up about 40 minutes later, having decided to ride the bus to Lagos to meet a friend rather than camp just out of town. We chatted while we waited, his bus to Lagos scheduled to arrive at 2:00pm, mine to Sagres at 2:20pm. A German couple soon joined us, they too, we’re headed to Lagos. We discussed the PCT as possibly their next big hike.

Their bus came, they loaded and left. I was getting stiff from the 13 mile walk so I started doing some yoga to get my blood moving. I was in the middle of upward dog when I saw Vasco’s hiking poles standing in the corner of the bus stop. We had exchanged emails and phone numbers so I immediately texted him and offered to grab his poles and somehow get them back to him. He said do it. My bus came and I boarded with my pack and Vasco’s poles. 35 minutes later I stepped off the bus in Sagres and found Sally at a beachside coffee stand drinking a Coke and talking with a woman from Germany. We headed for the Kabab place of yesterday for dinner. On the way Vasco said he was arriving in Sagres by car in an hour with a friend of his and wanted to know where to meet us to get his poles. We had planned to watch the sunset, so I sent him a screen shot of a map of the area with our probable location circled.

We rested in our room for 20 minutes, then walked to the beach to watch the sunset. I texted Vasco to update our position. We sat on a wood platform to watch the sun go down. Vasco soon joined us with his friend Raquel. We watched the sun set, chatted and then parted company. Two side notes: (1)Vasco is doing the Camino from Porto and will arrive in Santiago, Spain on June 13. We will be there on the 14th as we finish the French route. We made plans to meet in Santiago in June. What a hoot! & (2) I watched the sun rise out of the Atlantic and then set into the Atlantic today from the same town. Amazing!!

Back in our apartment, less than five minutes from the beach we did a little reading and writing and then called it a night.

Sunrise over the Atlantic