Hike to Vila Nova de Milfontes

First day on the fisherman’s way, when finishing yesterday we actually finished our section of the Historical Way, and today the Fisherman’s begins.

The “way” signs change here, and it really helps to know the hiking sign lingo when your close to towns, as there can be a few local circle trails along the same path your on. The Historical was is marked in red/ white,

and the trail we have moved onto, the Fisherman’s, is marked green /blue. On the one sign,

you’ll see all the colors, but a yellow is included, that tells you you are on a shared section with a short local circle trail, getting confused can cost you time and miles.

 Covo was a beautiful village and today is starting out really hot. The locals are saying that this is summer weather and we are going to feel it. I’m thinking it may not be too bad as we are walking along the coast, but I guess we will find out.

We headed out and backtracked to the Fort Ilha for breakfast, this was bout 45 mins into today. The beaches are stunning with the water so clear and calm. Today reminded me a little of the coast I was raised on along certain parts of the coast of Natal, South Africa.

 It didn’t take too long for us to realize what we already actually knew, that the soft beach sand was going to be brutal on our legs.

 

After walking a ways on the beach, we were forced up onto the ridge line and along the top of the cliffs on the way to Altria’s do Nortes. The beach sand paths up here were worse than the beach itself, and we were continually climbing and descending along the edge of these 100 ft high sea cliffs. As dangerous as it might seem, being that close to the edge at times, the views were spectacular and the water was crystal clear.

After 3 hours we had to take a break and rest our legs, the soft sand was real challenge, but you hike on, putting one foot in front of the other, and staying present in your mind. When not on the cliff edges, we were walking through fields of aloe plants, I’ve since learned that there are over 550 species of Aloe, and no idea which one these are.

We passed fishermen who were fishing about 50 ft up the cliffs, I couldn’t but wonder what happens if they actually get a big one on the line, because they are not going to lift anything up with that light line they were using.

After a long haul, we eventually came into a place called Ponte das Barca’s, a great refreshment stop, according to the “book”, it was closed !!!? Fortunately it wasn’t too far from there to this town, as we had run out of water.

As soon as we made it in and showered, we made Patty take us fir a Sangria

Bill and I discussed it, that we never had 4 tough days in a row on the Camino that came close to this, in fact, the Camino is a bit of a cruise compared to this, so far anyway. That will teach us not to underestimate the next walk based on photos.

Milfontes is another beautiful village right at the mouth of the Rio Mira , where the river spreads out and meets the sea.

This river was once navigable inland 30 km all the way to Odemira, today it’s mouth is guarded by a modest castle built in the 1500 s, called Forte de San Clemente..

Tomorrow we plan to catch a ferry from here to the other side of the River estuary, rather than walk two miles to go up the river, over the main road bridge, and back down the other to where the ferry lands…..cheating you say???????? ,, damned right we are.