The train takes an easy hour to reach Lisbon. I have instructions to get off at a certain station but I decide to get off earlier. It’s a glorious day for a walk and the train is the worst way to see a city. Walking is the only way. Besides, it’s only 2km (1.4 miles)…
I feel a bit sad to be waking on the final day of my hike. This happens every time I go on through walks. I want to keep walking forever. I slip out of the hostel around 9am, leaving the other walkers who stayed there to their breakfasts and warm beds. I want to savour…
I wake early. Today will be a 22km hike and I want to have the time to enjoy it. There are seven of us hiking the same sections of the trail. A group of three university students who picked up a fourth the second day. They had difficulty finding the start of the trail the…
I wake to a bright and sunny day. The wind has died down and the sea is much calmer. It promises to be a wonderful day hiking. Today the trail is only 15km and I have nothing to race to the other end for. So I take my time. I’m barely 3km from Vila Nova…
The Fishermen’s Trail is a four day hike along Portugal’s south-west coast. Starting at Porto Covo, just south of Sines it follows the rugged wave battered and sun bleached coastline south to Odeceixe. The walk is broken into four neat village-to-village sections that make it possible to take on this adventure on the spur of…
We head out for a drive. My aunt has devised another fabulous route to show off the best of the Alentejo region. It’s so diverse that we can go for a fourth drive and have a totally different day to the previous three. And a different day it will be. Not far from my aunt’s…
Mertola is a couple of hours drive from my aunt’s house so we make it our destination for today. Along the way we see many many storks nesting on top of everything they can find. The storks do not leave this area to migrate anywhere for the winter. Rather, they stay all year round, making…
It’s my final morning with Mum. She’s heading back to Madrid after lunch and then flying home to Australia. We spend the morning out walking together in Grandola. It’s a small town that doesn’t have much to see, but that’s partly what makes it so nice here. We’re just in a random town in rural…
We arrive in Portugal late in the afternoon. The next day it is raining so it’s perfect for me to sit in my aunt’s lounge room and work. My first impressions of Portugal will have to wait until my third day in the country. But what a lot of impressions I get. Like the rest…
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