Fishermen’s Trail Day 7

At the hotel where we stayed in Arrifana, we enjoyed a good breakfast. We had prepared ourselves for a classic continental breakfast, but we were once again positively surprised by the selection and quantity. Before setting out on today’s hike, we stopped by the local small shop and bought food for lunch.

Today’s destination is the town of Aljezur. It’s 18 km (11.2 miles) away, and the town is located by a river, about 5 km (3.1 miles) inland. The first part of today’s hike was along the cliffs. At times, the trail went through loose, fine sand, which we dislike, and it wasn’t much fun. After 11 km (6.8 miles), we left the coast and followed the south side of the valley where the Ribeira de Aljezur river flows. This involved walking along, and on, paved roads.

Some of the hikers we meet have very small backpacks. These are the ones who have utilized the baggage transfer service. For €15, you can arrange for a company to pick up your luggage, often a suitcase, in the morning and transport it to your accommodation for the next day. We have suitcases with us on this trip because we’re continuing our vacation after finishing the Fishermen’s Trail. However, we chose to send them with the post office directly from Lagos to the hotel where we’ll stay after the last stage of the hike. This was much cheaper than using the transport company’s service.The backpacks we’re using on this trip are much smaller than the 60-liter ones we usually use. Inger now has a 25-liter pack, and I have a 35-liter. When we’re not camping and have access to food every day, we don’t need larger packs.