Two years and three days since I was in Porto Covo on the Fisherman’s Trail, I’m back. Last time I left Porto Covo on a bus, with broken shoes and travelled to Lisbon to buy a new pair. In Lisbon I had planned to take a train the 50 or so kilometer’s to Azambuja, where I would start the Camino Portugues. But as luck would have it, the trains were on strike, and I ended up taking a taxi. Today I start on a four day hike to close the gap between Porto Covo and Lisbon, and from there two more days on to Azambuja.
Breakfast was at 8am, and after a good nights sleep and a chat with a German guy starting his first ever multi-day hike, I was on my way by 8.30am. It was pleasant weather, the sun was shining, but was a bit cold. It would soon warm up. I walked through a deserted Porto Covo, passing the characteristic blue and white washed houses, before reaching the coast.
The 10 first kilometers followed the coastline north towards Sines. This is actually the last (or for most, the first) stage of the Fisherman’s Trail. And the walk was just as spectacular along the rugged coast as many of the previous stages of the Fisherman’s Trail. After the beautiful walk along the coastline, it was soon time to get used to walking along roads, as the road turned north west towards the harbour town of Sines. There was a fairly wide shoulder to walk along, but with next to nothing to see – not super exciting.
Sines, with its medieval castle perched above the port is possible the birthplace of the navigator Vasco de Gamma, who discovered the sea route to India. The old town, next to the castle has many small streets with restaurants and cafes. I climbed the steep hill towards the castle and took a coffee at one of the numerous cafes.
Leaving Sines was equally unexciting, passing through a large housing estate and then along a busy road packed with supermarkets, large stores and a couple of American burger places. I was soon on a quieter road before walking through the Santo André and Sancha Lagoons Natural Reserve, a lagoon protected from the sea by sand dunes. The wetlands were not so wet at this time of year, and I walked along relatively dry and sandy paths through a forested area with predominantly pine trees, for the last 12 or so kilometers of todays total of 34kms.
For a number of kilometers either side of Sines, I followed signs with the famous yellow arrow and sea shell, that usually guide walkers to Santiago do Compostela. As I turned into the Natural Reserve the arrows followed a different route.
Vila Nova de Santo Andre, today’s destination is, as the name suggests, a new and planned city from the 1980’s, built to serve the nearby oil industry. It consisted almost solely of multi-coloured high-rise blocks of apartments and a city centre surrounding the intersection of two roads. Neither very picturesque or interesting.
My hotel is at the northern edge of the town, so I had to go all the way back into town to find a restaurant. It was ca. 6pm and nowhere was open to eat for at least an hour and being Valentine’s Day, most places were offering menu’s for two. So I walked back to the hotel purchasing some bread, cheese and ham on the way. The town didn’t very much to offer, neither picturesque or very interesting – just lots of multi-colored appartement blocks.
The weather was beautiful all day, reaching 16 degrees after lunch. I quickly changed my trousers to shorts, and only used shorts for the rest of the trip.
All in all, 34km, thanks to a couple of missed turns. It’s a lot for a first day, not least when most of it was walking on sandy paths, which is really hard going.