Day 11- Hiking the Fisherman Trail - Day 7 - Putting the Plan into Action - Monday, February 13, 2023

Well, we would have slept in today as we are not hiking. But, there was a castle on a hill, an old church and a new town to check out. Plus, our fancy (can you say sterile) four star hotel was giving us an included breakfast that had to be served to us between 8 and 10 and we had a bus to catch at 12:33. So many responsibilities!!  

Bus you say? Whatever for?  The next three stages of the trail are inland. We reasoned that with our limited time we could skip those and bus ahead to the coastal sections. We are putting our plan into action. Plus, a rainy period is in the forecast. We are positioning ourselves to take a day off to let the rain fall without us being one of its targets. 

We were up at 7:00am. Showered and dressed we headed for the dining room. There we saw a single table set for breakfast. Our table. We sat and a woman brought us a full meal, four different kinds of rolls, scrambled eggs, a fruit bowl, yogurt, cereal, cheese, luncheon meat and tea. Sitting there in this large room, the floor and walls tiles so that every sound echoes. I was reminded of Dave at the end of 2001: A Space Oddessy when he finds himself eating at a table, by himself with every sound echoing. It wasn’t as weird as I am making it sound. I am just uncomfortable when someone is waiting on me as this lady was. 

Our 2001 breakfast finished, we headed out to town to see the Iron Age (yes that old) castle on the hill above town. This is supposed to be a day off for us, so rather than walk to the top, we sought out a taxi to take us there. We tried Uber, but after it searched for about five minutes it concluded there were no drivers available. We had seen a taxi cue spot when we walked into town yesterday. We walked over and asked the driver if he would take us to the top where the castle was. He didn’t have a good command of English so he thought we were asking directions. I mean, come on, the ride to the top was less than a mile. We finally convinced him that we wanted him to take us to the top. He agreed to do so for five euros, so we hopped in and 3 minutes and about 400 vertical feet later we were standing in front of the castle gate. It was interesting to see this very old relic with a long history. Occupied by the Moors until the Christians forced them out in the 1200’s, it is like a Time Capsule. The view to the valley and town below were excellent. 

We walked back down, stopped at the public market to inquire about bus tickets (you buy them from the driver) then across the valley to the church on the opposite hill. A quick walk through the nearby streets, a stop for Pepsi’s at the grocery and back to checkout of our room by 11:00am. 

When we came out of the hotel door who should we find but two of our four “skinhead nazis” turned good guys. We chatted for a moment with them; they too had spent the night in the same hotel. Sally wanted a photo. Turns out they are from the Czeck Republic. 

We wandered over to the bus stop to wait for our bus. It was now about 11:15am. Our bus didn’t arrive to pick us up until 12:23pm. With time to kill I started to edit and write my blog. Sally was people watching, but getting restless. She saw our four Czeck Republic men walking towards us. She jumped up and ran across to get their photo. From my position I could see them laughing with Sally about our chance meetings.   Soon she was talking about hitchhiking to Lagos rather than paying for a bus trip. We gathered our packs and looked for a good place to position ourselves for catching a ride. We walked across the bridge and up the highway a little bit, but there was no place to pull off. We decided to go back where we were, in front of the bus stop was best. When we arrived back we found three German girls had already taken our spot-they even we’re holding a Lagos sign. We didn’t want to compete or spoil their chances so we settled into the benches at the bus stop to either wait our turn to try hitching or catch the bus. Sally now had something entertaining to watch. These 3 late teen or early 20’s girls took much longer to score a ride than we thought they would, but by12:00 they were gone. Now it was close enough to our bus time that we decided to just wait. 

We tried to board a bus we thought was going to Lagos. I put our packs in the storage bins below, then entered the bus to pay our fare and ride when the driver told me it wasn’t going to Lagos. Back out, remove our bags and wait a little longer. Finally, bus 79 arrived. We stowed and boarded. 

The ride to Lagos was about 40 minutes. Lagos felt like a big city, especially when compared to the tiny towns we had been walking through. 

The bus dropped us on the road that parallels the harbor. Using Apple Maps we navigated about 15 minutes to our hostel, entered, got the tour and landed in our room. Leaving our packs behind, we headed back out to find lunch and do Rick Steves’ walking tour. Fish and chips in a pub. Once you stepped inside you weren’t in Portugal anymore. Now you were in England, complete with Brit servers and customers. 

After Rick’s short tour we did our daily shopping for tomorrow’s food for the hike and tonight’s dinner, went back to the hostel, cooked dinner. While eating, a wonderful 67 year old lady from Montreal sat across from us and engaged in conversation. Our dinner extended by about an hour as we shared travel and life experiences. 

Once back in our room fatigue overtook me again. I happily crawled into bed and was asleep by 9:30pm. 

Sally eating breakfast, 2001 style

Castle on top of the hill

Half the town from the castle

Other half of the town

Two of the four fro Czech Republic


All four Czech Republic guys

Our 4 star hotel 

Waiting for the bus

Square in Lagos

Original Slave Market from 1400’s in Lagos

Day 10- Hiking the Fisherman Trail - Day 6 - Scheming, Plotting and Planning - Sunday, February 12, 2023

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 

A comfy seaside bench

The scenery just keeps coming 

A couple we met from France

The coast, and is

Regional bus routes

Us and our new Finish friends

The last hill down to Aljezur 

The two halves od Aljezur as seen from the Castle (more on the castle in tomorrow’s post

Day 9 - Hiking the Fisherman Trail - Day 5 - “It’s a very blustery day, Pooh” - Saturday, February 11, 2023

Where did our wintertime Portuguese sun go?  Today was overcast most of the day. It rained during our last hour of walking. But, the most remarkable element of the weather today was the wind. It blew with a constant speed of around 20 mph and was mostly in our face all day. It determined where we stopped as we searched for places on the Lee side of objects to give us a respite from its constant force. 

We knew we had a long day in front of us, about 12 miles. In spite of our comfortable bed, we set our alarms and rousted ourselves out of bed at 6:00am. The heat pump had run all night, trying to keep the room at a comfortable temperature. I slipped downstairs to fry two eggs for sandwiches and boil four eggs for breakfast. Why fried egg sandwiches? The lunch meat here is not very appetizing and eggs are cheap and good quality. With cheese added to the egg sandwich it makes a tasty and nutritious lunch. 

We ate our breakfast in the hostel dining room, did our dishes and were out the door a little after 7:00am. 

First move is drop off the bluff on the road exiting the town square to the beach level south of town, then climb up the opposing slope to the top of the bluff. The trail started out close to the cliffs with more gorgeous ocean and surf views. We passed a group of four somewhat rough looking men that appeared to be camping on the bluff. As it did yesterday, the trail left the shoreline and traversed on roads inland for a period. On this portion the four men caught and passed us. They were not very conversational at all and after they were some distance apart we began to jokingly refer to them as nazi skinheads. 

When the trail again came close to the cliff edge it dropped off the edge steeply in a ravine, a piece of terrain that would have been difficult for Sally to traverse safely so we climbed back up and using our map found an alternate route on roads back a ways from the cliffs edge. It was about three quarters of a mile long, but on solid road surface that made for easy and quick walking. When we again intersected the trail we joined it just in front of the four men that passed us. Sally jokingly ribbed them about being too slow. This brought a smile to all their faces. They didn’t look like nazi skinheads anymore. They joked with us in broken English and again we’re in front of us. 

The trail now stayed off the beach for a mile or two, then rejoined the bluffs. We elected to continue on the road rather than the trail and cliffs just to keep the walking easy. Both the road and trail intersected in a very small fishing town called Azenha, made up of about 7 or 8 houses, a restaurant and a fishing equipment store. We entered the restaurant keen on getting Sally a coke and the two of us a pastry. As we did, in walked our four German men, again a look of incredulity on their faces. Sally again ribbed them about being too slow and got them all to laughing again. They were staying for lunch. As we left before them Sally again joked with them about the trail ahead. We did not see them again. 

From the “town” the trail led us down a road to their tiny harbor on this rocky, wave infested shore, then turned south, dropped to a bridge over a creek and then climbed steeply up the far side.  As earlier in the day, we were on the cliff’s edge sometimes and back from its edge and out of view of the water at others. With about 3 miles to go to our destination town of Odeceixe we put the ocean to our backs and headed inland. From the top of the last seaside bluff we could look across the river to the south and see a massive beach and beach town. Decidedly very busy in the summer, it looked like a ghost town today. The trail followed the north bank of the river inland three miles to a bridge.We crossed, then backtracked down river a few hundred yards into town. It was about 3:00pm. My watch said we had covered 11.87 miles. 

Our host’s instruction said that to enter our lodgings, the Bohemian Antique Guesthouse, we needed to walk across the square and get the key from the pizza restaurant. We got the key to our room, the “Moroccan Gypsy”. No room number, just a name. All went as instructed and soon we were in our room, a funky space that looked like something out of Moulin Rouge. The bed was a mattress on a sort of false ceiling. The couches and chairs were very close to the ground. The lamps were funky. But it had a great bathroom and amazing shower. 

We rested, then walked to a grocery store for supplies and back to the pizza restaurant for dinner. 

Sally spent a lot of time plotting and planning the next stages of our adventure. For some reason I was incredibly tired. She was trying to discuss plans with me and all I could do was mutter incoherently and nod off. Mercifully, we climbed the ladder into our bed that was the ceiling of our room, rejoiced at finding a super comfy bed, plugged in all electronic devices and was asleep in two heartbeats. Another amazing day.

Zambujeira from across the draw

More amazing beaches. 

Sally on the bluff head trail

Part of the “away from the bluffs” route

Sandy beaches nestled in between the cliffs

We passed hundreds of greenhouses. Some had leaf lettuce, most empty right now

Walking the road to Azenha


Fields of leaf lettuce

Restaurant in Azenha

Chuck enjoying a pastry

Day 8 - Hiking the Fisherman Trail - Day 4 - More Coast, Less View - Friday, February 10, 2023

The bed was so comfortable in Cavaleira last night. The kind that your body lets out a contented hum all night. So nice. I woke up early and wrote in bed, my thumbs happily pounding the glass screen of my iPhone as I enjoyed the dawning of the day, Sally snoozing soundly beside me. I wrote until 8:00am, our designated time to rise. I woke her up, then snuck downstairs to the bathroom. I used my throne time to add photos to my blog and didn’t make it back up to the room until 8:20am. Sally was still asleep. We had hoped to be walking by 9:00am, about 2 hours later than normal, but now we would be a bit later. It was not really a big deal because today was another short day, about 8 miles. 

Again, the spacious apartment felt cold once out of the bedroom where we had the heater going. We had hot tea, Muesli and Yogurt for breakfast. Not boiling and frying eggs saved us some prep time. 

We were out the door and headed back to the beach trail (or should I say bluff trail as it spends all its time up on the bluffs above the beach and expect for the first day, no time traversing the beach). Every town except for Porto Covo and the one we are heading to today are set back from the beach some distance, from as little as one mile to as much as three or four. The end of each day is walking to the town on beach access roads and the beginning of each day is walking another beach access road back to the ocean. 

We were greeted by a lighthouse at the bluffs, our second in as many days. Judging by the roped off trails and numerous boardwalks this place must really be busy in the high season. 

Today, the trail spent less time on the edge of the bluffs where ocean and ragged coastline views are constant. It moved inland just a hundred yards or so, sometimes more, depending on the terrain so that the views were lost except for those occasions when the trail returns to an outlook.

The winds were blowing off shore again, although they were not a diurnal offshore breeze. This was a frontal wind, brought on by regional weather. The surf was less vigorous today, still beautiful to watch, but not as towering. 

On one of the outlooks we saw a stork nest complete with stork. The rib of rock it sat on made it approachable, so I wandered out toward it, taking pictures as I went until the hesitant stork decided I was too close and flew off. I was videoing at the time and filmed his flight. 

After the stork, we turned inland and dropped down a set of stairs to anoher one of those super small, protected little harbors for fishing boats. On the other side was a restaurant at the top of the ramp emitting wonderful smells and for a moment we were tempted. We resisted the siren call of fried, delectable food and continued on another couple hundred yards to a picnic table where we had rolls, cheese, bananas potato chips and a soda. From here it was a two mile walk on paved highway, then a quick jog back to the coast on trail for some magnificent bluff and sea views, then into town, Zambujeira, right on the coast. 

The huge, and vacant, town square is on a bluff overlooking the ocean. It must be hopping during the summer season. A church sits on the square.

We wandered town for a few minutes, checking out shops (mostly shuttered for the winter), then worked our way to the Hakuna Matata Hostel for the night, arriving at the outer door precisely at three. The owner arrived a minute later and let us in. 

He registered us, then showed us around the kitchen and took us upstairs to our room, one floor up. 

Again, a spacious affair with a balcony big enough for a table and two chairs, a sitting area, and a bathroom. 

We dropped our packs, rested for 30 minutes, then headed out to explore the town more and do our shopping chores; something for dinner, tomorrow’s breakfast and lunch. We ended up back at the main square and succumbed to the glass paneled restaurant with a view. Sally had a shrimp salad and I had vegetable soup (it looked like grass soup) and French fries. 

To the supermarket for tomorrow’s supplies. Sally bought another bottle of wine with plans to share it with whoever else walked into the hostel. Olga from Puerto Rico was the lucky recipient of Sally’s good nature. I FaceTimed the Caldwells and worked on my Spanish on Duo Lingo while Sally chatted downstairs in the common area. 

The room had a heat pump heater mounted on the wall. I had cranked it to 25°C (77°F) when we got in. Right near the heater got warm but over by the bed remained somewhat cool. An hour later I cranked it to 29°c (84°F). The room still was coolish. In Almograve I watched a house being built. All buildings here are constructed the same. A frame of poured concrete beams and pillars is made first. There are four rebar sticking out of the pillars, so I assume the concrete is reinforced. Then the spaces between the pillars and beams are filled with hollow red bricks. Stucco is applied to both inside and outside of the bricks. Zero insulation. I was feeling the effect of this no insulation feature in our room. 

With the earthquake in Turkey/Siria I began seriously wondering about the earthquake resistance of these houses built of ceramics. Each night as I lay in bed falling asleep I wonder what would happen to the building I am in if an earthquake occurred. Not enough to deprive me of sleep, but still, I do wonder. 

Lighthouse just outside town

The scenery goes on

Long. Straight. No coastline. 

Stork on his/her nest 

Stairs down to the fishing cove

More beaches, bluffs and surf. Still Beautiful 


Square in Zambujeira 

Chuck relaxes in hostel


Typical construction everywhere in Portugal and beyond. No wood. All ceramic. What would happen in an earthquake?

Day 7 - Hiking the Fisherman Trail - Day 3 - How Many Times A Day Can You Say “Wow”? - Thursday, February 9, 2023

If muscles can get sore from overuse, can the same thing happen to your eyes from working hard to enjoy the scenery?  

Today’s walk on the trail was as spectacular, if not more so, than the first day. Cliffs plunging into the sea, the trail balanced on their lip, surf pounding and huge waves rolling in, stunning green ground cover and bright orange rock and sand. It is all magnificent. And the price of admission? The ability to walk, listen and see.

We were up at 8:00am today. An extra hour of sleep due to our short mileage, only 5 or 6 to do today. I fried 4 eggs and made egg and cheese sandwiches for lunch and boiled 6 eggs for breakfast. The bread we bought yesterday was the kind with tough, chewy crust and a sourdough like texture. So good, but really heavy to carry. We were not sure what would be available for food in the town we are staying in tonight so we carried enough food to see us through if necessary. 

The sun was warm and comforting, streaming through our glass door onto the balcony, as we packed our bags in our south facing room. By 9:10 we were ready to start our walk. The temperature was the warmest it has been to start walking, about 53°. I started out in shorts and stayed that way all day. The sun shown through thin clouds and a light off shore breeze was blowing. 

We hiked along a road back to the ocean, then turned south, staying on the road for about a mile, never more than a few hundred yards from the ocean pounding on the twisted sedimentary beds of rock that comprised the shoreline. We caught up with a man from Germany and talked with him for about 15 minutes as we walked. A very pleasant, quick to laugh person. He was walking with another couple from Germany, out for a 10 day holiday. 

The trail climbed up on the bluffs and stayed there the whole day, affording incredible views both north and south and down to the waters edge. How many times can you say “WOW!”?

We leapfrogged our German friends a few times. At one point we were sitting near a boulder covered with yellow lichen, eating a snack when they passed. We got to talking about the vegetation. I kept up to show them the plant identification app we use. The plant I picked to identify came up as “Hottentot Ice”. They seemed a bit repelled by the name and sought out an alternative “Ice Plant”. After they walked on, I mentioned that the “H” word was used by Admiral Boom in Mary Poppins and thought I had better look it up. Turns out it is derogatory, not too dissimilar from the “N” word. Oops!  That explains their reaction. It is “Ice Plant” from now on. 

We saw about seven other hikers today, about the same as yesterday. There are people here, just not too many. 

From the map, we saw our trail was turning inland to our next town. We stopped on the final bluff to let Sally drink the Pepsi she was carrying and to enjoy the scenery. We misjudge the turn in point and had one more point to walk out on. Here I saw a stairway hewn from the rock cliff that descended to the beach. I dropped my pack and while Sally waited I descended the couple hundred feet to a gorgeous sand beach nestled in between the rock ribs extending out into the sea. It was amazing to be level with the pounding surf, it’s sound echoing off the enclosing rock walls. I returned to the cliff tops and we made our way inland on roads to our town for the night, Cavaliero. 

In each town we have been to all the buildings are painted white with blue trim and red tile roofs. Very pretty and very uniform. The first building we approached had our talkative German sitting outside. He had a sore foot and was waiting for a taxi to drive him to the next town where he would rejoin his friends. 

We followed Apple Maps again and found our accommodations for the night, just around the corner. We contacted the owner on WhatsApp and he gave us instruction on how to get in: the door is unlocked, just enter. 

It is an apartment with a living room, kitchen and bath downstairs, a bedroom upstairs and a washing machine. We quickly stripped and washed all our clothes, hoping to get them outside on the clothes line to dry before it got to late in the day. The humidity here is quite high, so things take forever to dry. No one has dryers. Electricity is expensive and most of the year it is hot and things dry quickly. 

We went for a walk around “town”, checking out a small “supermercado”. We noticed there appeared to be a lot of immigrants, mostly men of Indian descent. We sat down outside a bar to consider our options for dinner and a man, woman and 4 year old child rose up in bikes (the kid in the bucket bike seat over the rear wheel on the woman’s bike). Sally asked about all the immigrants. She said this is an agricultural area. People come from Nepal, India and elsewhere to work the fields, not unlike Mexicans to the US. We also learned that this entire coastline is a National

Park. That is why development is restricted. hmmmmmm 

We returned to the grocery store and bought canned pork and beans and a canned stew for dinner. Both were tolerable, but not great. Big chunks of fat floated in both in the broth. We chose not to eat those, but enjoyed the flavor they added to the dish. 

We turned on the heat in the upstairs bedroom, a plug in free standing heater and got it good and hot, hoping to dry our clothes; we succeeded. Sally researched more about the route while I wrote. Finally, about 9:30pm we switched off the heat and lights and called it a night. What a great day!  Lots to see, lots to learn. 

Coastal road and our route

Twisted rock trailing off into the sea

“Can you believe this coast?”


Talk about a snug harbor!

Up on the cliffs, enjoying the view

Jagged coast

Amazing lichens

A little bit of forest today

Vegetation is beautiful too

The beach I climbed down to

Like . . . duh

Stairs down to the beach

Stairs from half way down