Hi to all the people interested in the Rota Vicentina Walk,
A friend and I did the walk beginning of April last year with good weather. Make sure you take food and plenty of WATER with you because most days we didn’t walk through any villages and if we did the shop may not have been open. It is a lonely route through the hilly forest trails; we didn’t see anybody else in these areas. On our walk we only saw about 4 other pilgrims walking north to South. There were no pilgrim facilities, we stayed in hostels or small hotels and in the first few sections we asked our hosts to book ahead for us when we had our packs taken ahead by taxi.
We started our walk in Cabo de S Vicente and walked North to Santiago do Cacem. We down loaded the guide notes from the Rota Vicentina site and we were able to get a guide book from the tourist office in Sagres. The route is very well marked all the way. There was no accommodation in Cado Vicente so we stayed 2 nights in Vila do Bispo as the first days walk ends in Vila Bispo.
Day 1: Cabo de Vicente- Vila do Bispo 16km, Hotel Mira Sagres 30e incl breaky (only acc there). Shops / restaurant opposite hotel, Mercado. We took a bus to Sagres and then a taxi 8e to Cabo Vicente and walked the coast and back to Vila Bispo. The walks along the coast are very beautiful.
Day 2: Vila do Bispo – Carrapateira 23km, Pensao Das Lunas 35e (2 nights) breakfast 7.50. Shop/restaurant, Mercado. We sent our packs ahead by taxi 8e, each (friend had blisters). There was a village Pedralva on today’s walk that is being re-established, it has acc on your right as you enter the village. Today we had to cross the same creek 6 times; Off came the shoes each time. If you don’t carry your pack make sure you take a small towel to dry your feet. Some of the crossings were quite deep and we had to take our walking shorts off because we couldn’t tell how deep the water was.
Day 3: Carrapateira – Carrapapeira 14km, today was a loop walk out to the coast and back.
Day 4: Carrapateira – Arrifana 25km,Pousadas de Juventude (youth hostel) inc breakf, email: ARRIFANNA2MOVIJOVEM.PT shops/restaurant, Mercado (a bit of a walk). I would recommend sending packs on by taxi today. When you arrive at the coast you have to cross a creek that runs out to the sea, we could have walked across a shallower section but then we would have had to climb a cliff, at 62 no thanks, so for us there was no way around and the water was almost waist deep. A bike rider went through before us so we could judge it’s depth and the climb up the headland on the other side was steep. It was a surfers camping spot so there were people around if help was needed.
Day 5: Arrifana – Aljezar 12km, Hotel Amazigh. Shop/mercado
Day 6: Aljezar – Odeceixe 19km, Casa Hospedes Celeste 20e inc breakf, run by a lovely lady who has walked the Camino and she asks pilgrims to sign her pilgrim book that dates back to the sixties. Shops/restaurant, Mercado. There was a town called Rogil along the way today with shops open. After Rogil you start walking along the edge of a canal and that was hot walking.
Day 7 :Odeceixe – Sao Teotonio 24km, Hotel, ph +351 283 958 406 20e inc breakf. Shops, café,mercado. A hard day, we climbed up and down all day through Eucalyptus forests ( I felt right at home being from Australia) and there were a few water crossings, we only took our boots off once.
Day 8: Sao Teotonio – Odemira 22km, Residencial Rita 22.50 inc breakf. Shops/restaurant, Mercado. When we crossed the bridge into town we turned left and found our acc down in that area. An easy day.
Day 9: Odemira – S Luis by bus today, I think there were a lot of km’s today and my friend was still struggling with blisters. There was supposed to be acc here but when we arrived we were told it was 3km out of town so we decided to wait for the next bus to -- Cercal do Alentejo, Residencial Café/Restaurant Solardo Alentejo 20e, the sign is above a café at the bus stop. There were shops in S Luis.
Day 10: Cercal do Alentejo – Vale Seco by bus—then walk to Santiago do Cacem 25km, Porto das Covas Residencial 20e no breakf ( not far from bus station for bus to Lisbon) hard to find acc here, we were tired and probably didn’t look hard enough. Shops/restaurant, Mercado. The walk to Vale Seco was long km’s and according to the guide book there was only a bar there, so not being sure about acc we didn’t want to walk a long day and arrive not knowing if we could find acc. We took the early bus and asked the driver to let us off at Vale Seco, there was a bar there but it looked like it hadn’t been open for years. Our first thoughts were, what have we done, no bar, no nothing, our guide book showed if we walked along the N20 towards Santiago do Cacem the path would cross the N20 and we could then follow our route, we walked ?km’s along a narrow busy road until we found our path and off we went. I think the guide book said this was a fairly easy day and only 18km’s but I have written 25km’s. This was a day of “ aren’t we there yet” ; It just seemed to drag on.
Day 11: bus to Lisbon.
Because we were going on to walk the Portugese Camino I didn’t keep my guide book so this info is out of my diary. It was an interesting walk but I missed the interaction with other pilgrims that you have on the Camino walks. The Portugese people were so friendly and helpful and the seafood was beautiful.
I stayed in Lisbon for a few days before travelling south to have a good look around and recover from jetlag. I stayed at the Hotel do Chile 35e night breakf 5e, where Diogo from the forum works and I can thoroughly recommend it. There was a bus stop not far away that took you down to the main city area or you were close enough to walk if you wanted to, shops and places to eat close by.
I also did Laurie’s walking tour which was great, some places I would never have found without her guide. You can find it on the forum in the Portugese section under ( My walking tour, Peregrina 2000). If you have time also take a tram from the water front down to the Belem district and visit the Mosteiro do Jeronimos a 16th century Monastery, worth a visit it was beautiful.
If anyone has any questions please ask.
Judy.