A magnificent start and end to the walking today, so-so in between. After two heavy days I was wondering how my legs and body would react today, which was a somewhat shorter day at 23 or 27kms, depending on where I took the boat from to Setubal.
I was down for breakfast at 8 sharp and walking just before 9 o’clock. The path leaving town had been transformed to a park with many paths. I walked in the general direction I needed to go and yet again was blocked by a fence. I followed the fence for a while and found an open entrance to the path on the other side. Walking towards the coast, the path led me to a low water area. Wide water basins ca. 1 kilometer long and 500m wide, crisscrossed with water channels, in length covering over 10km. During February it is an eldorado for migrating birds, but later in the year these are rice paddies. Rice has been cultivated here since 1925, then sown by hand, now the rice seeds are sown by low-flying planes. The whole area turns from water to green rice plants over summer.
There were many birds and whole flocks of birds flying in formation. A fantastic sight. I managed to put my foot in a pool of mud whilst watching them, covering my shoe in mud and soaking my foot. A great walk.
Comporta and the surrounding area is one of Portugal’s most mundane places. The rich and famous stay here during summer. As I left Comporta, it was only road for many kilometers following the Troia peninsula north. There wasn’t a lot to see, the coast was hidden away behind dunes. However I was “treated” to a vast array of high end cars driving past – Ferrari’s, Lamborghinis, tens of Porches, hundreds of Mercedes, BMW, Audi, Tesla and Range Rover’s. At least 50% of the cars passing were high end makes of car.
I arrived at Soltroia, and understood the array of cars. Large houses and walled and guarded domains lined the road and more were being built, seemingly mostly by immigrant workers living in container homes. I could have caught a ferry from here to Setubal, but decided to walk the last 4kms to Troia. There is a path connecting the two towns. It was a pleasant end to the walk along a well kept cemented path, passing the home, building and golf course – no sight of the sea – and a few people out jogging or walking their dog.
I knew that the catamaran at Troia left every hour at 30 minutes past the hour, and I assumed that I wouldn’t make the next crossing. Therefore I neither checked the remaining distance or the time, which resulted in me arriving just as the ticket booth closed and the catamaran departed. I took a coffee and sandwich before returning in plenty of time for a pleasant ride to Setubal.
The hotel is close to the port, and after a shower I went out to look around and get something to eat. There is an old town, with small streets and a number of empty shop fronts, squares with big churches and a lot of people out and about enjoying the good weather – it was cloudy all day until mid afternoon, but then the sun came out. By far the busiest shop was called Croissant, which sold Croissants with both sweet and savory fillings. There was a queue to order and a 15 minute wait whilst they were made. I saw many, many people carrying the boxes.
Setubal seemed to be a pleasant town, historically a fishing and packing port for primarily sardines, all the factories are today closed down. There were a number of sculptures scattered throughout the town including the “Girl with a Bicycle” and “Girl with a Suitcase” by Joao Duarte. The “special one” Jose Mourinho is born here and a special tribute to an Portuguese opera singer Louise Todi.
I took an early night as there was another long day tomorrow, when I make it to Lisbon.