Fishermen’s Trail Day 11

We had a relaxed morning and ate breakfast on the second-floor balcony of our apartment in Almograve. Sunrise here is at 6:20 AM, and the temperature was just right for sitting out in the sun when we had breakfast. Today’s stage to Milfontes is only 16 km (10 miles), but we feared it might have a lot of loose sand, making it tough going.

It was almost 9:30 AM when we left the shop after buying food and drinks for the trip. There are no places to buy supplies along the way today. The first one and a half kilometers (about a mile) were on a gravel road. Then the road ended, and we started on the trail. Yes, it was deep, loose desert sand, just as we feared. You can’t get a proper stride in this. You can’t roll your foot. It’s more like stomping your foot down and up, almost like in deep, loose snow. For us, who are used to a certain pace, this is frustrating. After five kilometers (3.1 miles), we found slightly firmer sand underfoot, and the sporadic loose sand sections after that were manageable.

On the last part of yesterday’s hike, we observed that the cliffs became lower and not as vertical as before. This trend continued today. The cliffs got lower as we walked northward.

The trail is called the Fishermen’s Trail, but we haven’t seen many fishermen on our hike these past few days. It’s not easy to fish along the cliffs. So far, we’ve only passed a couple of places where we’ve seen fishing boats able to land, usually in small coves with a breakwater or jetty. The swells mean that the few boats we’ve seen have been pulled ashore.

Milfontes is located on the north side of the Rio Mira river mouth. A fjord extends several kilometers inland where the river flows out. Where the trail meets the fjord, it takes a loop of about three kilometers (1.9 miles) into the fjord, crossing it on a road bridge before heading back out to the town.

Where the trail meets the fjord, there’s actually a boat transfer across to the town on the other side. I believe most hikers choose this option. However, we’re not like most; we walked around and over the bridge.

Today, for a change, it was almost completely still. It was a hot day, and we had to search for breezy spots on the cliff edge when we took breaks. We also took a few breaks in the shade of the few trees we passed.

We stayed in a fantastic apartment yesterday, and we were a bit curious about what today’s apartment would be like. We were not disappointed. It was on the second floor and was very lovely with a large bathroom with two sinks, two large bedrooms, and two balconies, plus an outdoor area. We sat out on the west-facing balcony until the sun went down.