Continuing with our approach of walking one day and resting the next, we relocated to the very small village of Carrapateira. Reflecting on the walk a week later, it was another gorgeous walk along the coast, but also included more interior walking compared to the southern coast. Early on the hike we came upon Praia do Amado, a very active surf community. Because it was bright and early the surfers were streaming in like a line of ants toward a honey pot. We learned there are many ways to carry one’s board to the water; the most effective appears to be a buddy system where each surfer sandwiches themselves between the ends of their two boards.. Of note, the water is very cold in the Eastern Atlantic this time of year and all the surfers were wearing full wet suits.
For this hike you sometimes had the option to keep walking on the beach instead of up and over the cliffs if the tide is low. We didn’t realize this on the first section and just followed the trail signs up and over. In truth, not sure if staying on the beach would have been that much easier. Over the next couple hikes we had plenty of opportunity to walk across long beaches and realized that walking in deep sand is not a whole lot of fun.
As we were resting after a steep climb we met a couple from San Diego. He commented that the Portuguese coastline in this area looks a lot like hiking along the coast in the San Diego area — we both agreed.
We had a very satisfying end to this hike. There is an ALDI grocery store immediately upon entering town! Julie was very pleased to find a clean bathroom and Joe was happy to to find exactly two chocolate donuts available for purchase (as well as the liter of milk as a chaser — very American).