Rota Vicentina – day 6
Before Vila do Bispo – Praia do Barranco
Wednesday, 27th December 2023
36,15 km – total 191,27 km
We don’t cook anything this morning, so we leave unusually early, at 7:30 AM. We pass by a van that was parked there yesterday, and a dog is barking. Now we’re walking on a boring road, 5 km, to the town of Vila do Bispo.
I’m looking for a café but without success. So at least a restroom, but that is closed too. Luckily, next to it, we find an open café. We order coffee and a pastel de nata. Then we head to Lidl. We buy freshly squeezed orange juice, Madeiran bananas, bread for breakfast, chocolate, and water. We unpack it all in front of Lidl and have a breakfast. It’s 15 km to Cabo de São Vicente. We walk for a long time on a fairly busy dirt road, with turnoffs leading to beaches.
The last 5 km, we turn onto a rocky path. Quite a pleasant change from asphalt and sand.
There are a lot of people at the lighthouse, so we quickly take a photo, have coffee at a stand. I switch to sandals, and we continue 5 km to the town of Sagres. Sometimes we walk along cliffs, sometimes along the road.
For a while, we watch fishermen fishing from the cliffs.
In town, we want to eat, but it’s quite touristy. We go to a shop for tuna, water, and breakfast supplies. At the end of the town, we find a restaurant with “Pinocchio” in the name, which suits us perfectly. Jozef orders grilled sea bream, and I have a cheese omelet, with a beer, Sagres of course.
The fish looks like it was caught right off the cliff here, and I have totally fresh fries made from real potatoes. I’m satisfied and even have a second beer to keep the pace up, and a coffee. It’s still 11 km to the place where we plan to sleep, and we have 1.5 hours until sunset. We’ve already accepted that we won’t make it, but we keep walking briskly. First, we cross the beach and then a meadow with cows. The sun is slowly setting. We descend to the beach and hear more cows.
From above, we see a tent pitched in the middle of the herd, between trees. We think that must be quite uncomfortable. There’s a path down to the beach, made of cobblestone, which is pretty loose and a bit dangerous for twisting ankles.
At the end, there’s a parking lot with quite a few caravans and vans. Some tourists are already camping near the beach, so we stay too. We set up on the grass. I want to wash my feet in the sea, but by the time I get there, it’s already dark, and the sea looks ominous, so I stay with dirty feet – after all, we’re finishing tomorrow. Jozef already has everything prepared in the tent.
It seems to me that the cows are getting closer, so I ask Jozef if he thinks so too, but he says no. So, I keep writing my blog. But the cows really are getting closer and closer. Soon, I see the shadow of a cow from the tent. And now, we’re in the middle of the herd. We pack up quickly, don’t even deflate the sleeping mats, and run up to the cliffs. Five minutes later, we’ve set up the tent again on top, where it’s quiet, except for one barking dog. Jozef is cooking instant noodles for dinner. We had planned pasta too, but I’m not really hungry, and we’re low on water. As usual, I finish writing the blog while Jozef is already asleep. But today, we did manage to brush our teeth beforehand.
