Rota Vicentina – day 4

Rogil – Arrifana

Monday, 25th December 2023 – Christmas day

24,05 km – total 123,11 km

We wake up late. After the prosecco, I didn’t feel like getting up. While packing in the morning, I get bitten by 10 more mosquitoes. But at least there’s no condensation. We can’t have it all—either mosquitoes or condensation. We leave just before 9 AM. I really don’t feel like walking today. We start on a paved road and head towards the town of Aljezur, 5 km away. It’s a historic town with a castle, so we wander around a bit.

Otherwise, it’s deserted, but the cats are there.

Then we climb a hill through some abandoned resort and through a cork forest. Still on asphalt, we head towards the ocean.

We reach the popular Praia da Amoreira beach, where there are lots of surfers. There’s also a restaurant, and we hope it’s open. We’re in luck, it’s just opening, so we have coffee, pastel de nata, and chocolate cake.

I’m starting to feel a bit dirty, so I check to see if there’s any accommodation nearby for a good price. Bingo! It’s 10 kilometers from us, right on the route and by the beach. I book it immediately. The thought of a shower makes walking easier. We continue past another fairly crowded beach, where we stop for lunch (bread with sardine pâté, cheese, and ham).

It seems families are spending their Christmas at the beach. They’re having picnics and drinks, and kids are sliding down the sand dunes. After that, we have 5 km along the cliffs with beautiful views.

Finally, we walk through a forest to the village of Arrifana, where we have our accommodation. It’s more crowded here, and we meet people on horseback. When we come off the trail onto the road, I change into sandals to give my feet some air. They really need washing, so we head to the beach.

Check-in is only from 4 PM, so we finally try out the ocean. First, I just test the water temperature—16.8°C—I expected it to be colder. Jozef makes coffee while I write the blog.

Then he’s the first to go into the sea. He seems to enjoy it a lot. So I go in as well; it’s warmer than Uherecká Reservoir at home. It was quite fun, but after a while, my feet started to get cold, so I got out. I dried off a bit on the beach, changed, and we headed to the hotel. On the way, Jozef grumbles about how much he hates sand and salty water. Good thing we’re on a trek that mostly goes over sand along the ocean. A very kind girl checks us in, and after seeing our passports, she says, “Aaa, Slovenia!” After we correct her, she apologizes and says we’re the first Slovaks she’s hosted, so she’ll probably get it right next time. They even gave us a better room than we paid for, so we’re happy. The shower was much needed. My hair really needed it, although I must say the wet look suits me. I also soak some socks and underwear that need washing, and then we head out to watch the sunset and have dinner.

We find one open place, but it won’t start cooking for another 45 minutes, so we keep looking. Since we haven’t walked much today, Jozef goes to check out the next village. We’re not sure if it’s open, so I stay in the room, and he’ll text me. He found Jordanian Al Bilal, so I join him. It’s 1.5 km away. I order an XL falafel wrap, and Jozef gets fried calamari. The music is pretty bad Arabic pop, but the food is good. Jozef liked the carrot the most—not that the rest was bad, but the carrot was exceptional. We take a walk back, and we end up with the same number of steps as if we’d been walking all day.