Day 1 of Fisherman's Way Trail Trek

We had an early start at 6:30 to catch the metro then our bus (2 hours) to Porto Covo and begin our 4 day trek. We are walking to Villa Nova de Milfontes today. Anthony and I had a stressful moment where our printed bus tickets did not scan. Luckily I had the receipt with our seat numbers, dates and they let us on. We arrived in Porto Covo, met our luggage transfer company and headed for a cafe to buy sandwiches for lunch and a quick coffee to start our day. We were all very excited and right away started to see some amazing views and scenery. We walked through ankle deep sand most of the day, with the exception of walking on the hard packed beach. We wore gators but over the day, the sand made its way through some of the mesh on my and Joanne's runners. Anthony and Priya did not have any b/c they had waterproof hikers. We had our amazing sandwich lunch at 10km. Highlights of our day included walking on the beaches, overlooking the nest of a momma bird feeding her young, watching some surfers catching waves, seeing other pilgrims like us walking along, the spectacular views and the flatter paths to the sides of the trail for easier walking through the sand and of course the conversation, photo ops and laughs of our day together. There was one man who I was passing and I said hello and he barely turned and grunted a strained hello!! He was a tired pilgrim to say the least. We were tired when we arrived after a 26 overall km day, 20km on the actual trail. Our hotel was very nice. After much needed showers we headed for dinner. On the way we bought beautiful and flavorful buns from a local couple to use for our sandwiches tomorrow. We found a nice restaurant in the main square with local Portugese options. We had a lively young man serving us. We enjoyed mojhitos and I had the Portugese cod made with shredded cod, onion and egg. It was very good. We watched a local woman sing and play guitar with young kids dancing and playing and people out enjoying the evening. We had a quick walk home as we were cold and checked out each other's rooms then some more stretching before bed.Lue lisää