Wednesday 28th October 2015 – Aljezur, Portugal

In the Spring our good friends and neighbours, Geoff and Carole, came to Portugal for a holiday and spent it on the Atlantic coast. They walked parts of the Historical Way (GR11/E9) and the Fishermen’s Trail and very kindly brought us back an excellent map and booklet on the Rota Vicentina provided by the tourist office. The map showed a short walk, part of the Fishermen’s Trail, that covered part of the coast here and I had chosen this campsite because I had worked out that it was close to the walk. Talking to the very helpful receptionist yesterday, it turned out that we could do the walk straight from the campsite, turning the 6km walk from the book into a 10km circular walk.

Turning right out of the campsite gate we were already on the Historical Way and soon came to the fork where the southern leg of the Fishermen’s trail joined. We walked on past that and took the northern leg some 1.5km further on. This took us directly towards the coast and the landscape changed from scrub to forest although the first section had been recently felled and brash covered the ground. Once in the wood, the plant and wildlife became more interesting with fungi, wild flowers, aloe vera and mother-in-law’s tongue. Although the sun was shining now there had been rain in the last couple of days and large puddles sometimes stretched across the path. Every time that we skirted one of the puddles, frogs jumped out of our path and into the water.

Soon we arrived above Carreagem beach and, although it was initially hidden behind sand dunes, we could hear the roar of the breakers on the sand. The vegetation changed again here with herbs and interesting bushes. We arrived at the Alezur estuary and the Amoreira beach, opposite Espartal where we were yesterday. The tide was lower and we sat on some rocks to picnic watching the tide come in whilst families enjoyed the beach and braved the waves. We had a coffee at the Paraiso do Mar restaurant with its wonderful view over the sea and beach.

The walk back took us briefly along the road and then up onto the higher land and we were soon back at the campsite.

Photos: The path over the sand dunes - the murk in the background is spray; A brave family on Paraiso Beach; On the way back from Paraiso Beach.