Followed our usual routine: breakfast at 8:15 on the trail at 9:00. Walking out of the village, we heard a metallic sound thinking it was related to the natural springs we were passing. The volume increased and I thought we were heading right into a stampede of cattle with cowbells. We saw the source to our…

Greg joined us today on our circular route trek. It was a morning of varied walking surfaces: Deep sand: Uneven rocks: Boardwalk: And dirt roads: The scenery lived up to its reputation: Rounding the final curve we saw our trail marker in the right place to guide us back to our village of Carrapateira in…

Last night we stayed at “Al.Floral” Guest House in Aljezur. A lot of thought was put into the building’s theme, each room named for a wild flower. Ours was translated to lemon verbena with the accompanying tea provided. My only issue with the room was it was described as having garden view. Sure, there was…

Last night we headed to the third restaurant recommended by our host, Retiro do Adelino, for traditional Portuguese fare. We shared cataplana for two: a tomato based stew of huge prawns, clams, seabass, white potatoes and sweet potatoes.  We are in sweet potato country complete with a sweet potato museum and festival that we’ll just miss…

We woke up in pretty good shape this morning thanks to a hot shower and good night’s sleep. I was surprised that my feet showed no evidence of yesterday’s over use. This was one of those stops where we stayed for two nights, a great option avoiding the daily reloading of the packs. The Rota…

A few more thoughts about our epic second day.  Trail marking was not great, especially when there were crossroads of trails. Three times, in the absence of markers, we were lucky to be joined by other hikers with more knowledge of the way. This marker expressed our feelings of the coming narrow track close to…

So I ended my last post, regarding watching trail previews, with the question, did it make us better prepared or scared. The answer: not scared enough. Whoever rated the trail difficulty as 2/5 has a different rating system than we’re used to. Overall it averaged a 3, but some parts were a 4. I confirmed…

Tonight’s dinner was typical hotel room fare for us when our stomachs are riched out from an excess of regional eating or if we are too exhausted to manage restaurant decision making. It’s more appetizing than it looks. Leftover pork from last night’s dinner, local hard cheese with Italian herbs, pimento, bread and Douro wine…

At 6:00 a.m. the storm was still raging. By 8:00 it was a beautifully sunny day. We went for the included breakfast and were joined by a young woman, hiking on her own. Who’s this first person we meet at brekkie? Coincidentally, a nurse from Vancouver. We exchanged info about other point-to-point walking experiences.  Today…

The journey started with three flights – Vancouver to Calgary to Paris to Lisbon. It wasn’t as pleasant a trip as we have had in the past. I can understand a small child being vocal about ear pain while flying. What I can’t is the sibling shaking a rattle that sounded like a New Year’s…