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LIVE from the Camino Caminho Nascente from Tavira - Spring 2021

over 7km with most of that section being on a Roman road - the longest stretch of Roman road I’ve walked on apart from possibly the Via Appia in Rome. It was also a mountain switchback road, unlike the straight, flat roads we tend to associate with the Roman Empire.
How fabulous! I never knew of any place, where the preserved Roman roads were so long!
Another descent, a short ascent and another descent later, Celorico da Beira and its castle were in view. I did a rough count and figured we have seen 13 castles on this camino with another one coming tomorrow!
I love castles, so this sounds like a Camino I need to put on my bucket list!
 
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The focus is on reducing the risk of failure through being well prepared. 2nd ed.
Each post, Nick, amps up my excitement as I begin planning for a September Nascente. Thanks again for these wonderful descriptions.
Oh wow, that’s great! Someone else contacted me today who is starting next week so maybe we can all put this camino on the map!
 
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Caminho Nascente Day 36: Celorico da Beira to Trancoso (~19km).

We set out in a reflective mood on our last day on the Nascente and walked in overcast conditions for most of the stage. There was a necropolis featuring rock-cut tombs early in the walk, but nothing especially noteworthy after that, with a little bit of elevation change but not as much as in some of the previous stages. As always on this camino, it was very rural and very scenic and the mountain views of recent days continued. I’m not a cat person by any stretch of the imagination (I’m mildly allergic), but this was a very picturesque scene on the trail:

064DA2DE-7289-4332-81F5-B717139E6D55.jpeg

We arrived in Trancoso by lunchtime, and by the time we went out to explore the town a few hours later, it had turned into a beautiful afternoon. Trancoso is one of the ‘historical villages’ of this region and is very deserving of that moniker as it contains city walls and towers, a good castle and a well-preserved historic core. Overall, it was a really worthy end to this camino.

50801F93-1710-43A5-8010-36AC5FA7F9EE.jpeg

So that’s it - sort of. After 36 days, we have finished the 650km of the Caminho Nascente, from the sea views of the Algarve to the overgrown grasslands of the Alentejo to the highest mountain range in Portugal, the Serra da Estrela. And what a camino it is! I’ll have more to say and write about it when we get home (whenever that may be), but for now we are thrilled to have chosen this path and taken a step into the unknown. Thank you to everyone who has followed along for your support!

Tomorrow we turn northwest and join the Camino Torres midstream as we continue our slow journey to Santiago. We know almost nothing about this camino but I’m sure more adventures await!
 
The focus is on reducing the risk of failure through being well prepared. 2nd ed.
I think that this thread may be singlehandedly responsible for awakening public interest in this Caminho. The Alentejo/Ribatejo tourism board should publish it!

Can’t wait to hear about the Torres, bom caminho! Have you seen @magwood’s blog? There might be some good info there for you, but you might not want to spoil the surprises that await.

Thanks so much for taking the time, it is so much fun to read your posts and enjoy your gorgeous pictures.

And p.s. I have been to Sernacelhe and I bet you will like it!
 
Caminho Nascente Day 36: Celorico da Beira to Trancoso (~19km).

We set out in a reflective mood on our last day on the Nascente and walked in overcast conditions for most of the stage. There was a necropolis featuring rock-cut tombs early in the walk, but nothing especially noteworthy after that, with a little bit of elevation change but not as much as in some of the previous stages. As always on this camino, it was very rural and very scenic and the mountain views of recent days continued. I’m not a cat person by any stretch of the imagination (I’m mildly allergic), but this was a very picturesque scene on the trail:

View attachment 101671

We arrived in Trancoso by lunchtime, and by the time we went out to explore the town a few hours later, it had turned into a beautiful afternoon. Trancoso is one of the ‘historical villages’ of this region and is very deserving of that moniker as it contains city walls and towers, a good castle and a well-preserved historic core. Overall, it was a really worthy end to this camino.

View attachment 101670

So that’s it - sort of. After 36 days, we have finished the 650km of the Caminho Nascente, from the sea views of the Algarve to the overgrown grasslands of the Alentejo to the highest mountain range in Portugal, the Serra da Estrela. And what a camino it is! I’ll have more to say and write about it when we get home (whenever that may be), but for now we are thrilled to have chosen this path and taken a step into the unknown. Thank you to everyone who has followed along for your support!

Tomorrow we turn northwest and join the Camino Torres midstream as we continue our slow journey to Santiago. We know almost nothing about this camino but I’m sure more adventures await!
Wow 36 days seem to have flown by, thank you for you lovely descriptive accounts of your Caminho.
Lots of hugs from Exeter
 
Caminho Nascente Day 36: Celorico da Beira to Trancoso (~19km).

We set out in a reflective mood on our last day on the Nascente and walked in overcast conditions for most of the stage. There was a necropolis featuring rock-cut tombs early in the walk, but nothing especially noteworthy after that, with a little bit of elevation change but not as much as in some of the previous stages. As always on this camino, it was very rural and very scenic and the mountain views of recent days continued. I’m not a cat person by any stretch of the imagination (I’m mildly allergic), but this was a very picturesque scene on the trail:

View attachment 101671

We arrived in Trancoso by lunchtime, and by the time we went out to explore the town a few hours later, it had turned into a beautiful afternoon. Trancoso is one of the ‘historical villages’ of this region and is very deserving of that moniker as it contains city walls and towers, a good castle and a well-preserved historic core. Overall, it was a really worthy end to this camino.

View attachment 101670

So that’s it - sort of. After 36 days, we have finished the 650km of the Caminho Nascente, from the sea views of the Algarve to the overgrown grasslands of the Alentejo to the highest mountain range in Portugal, the Serra da Estrela. And what a camino it is! I’ll have more to say and write about it when we get home (whenever that may be), but for now we are thrilled to have chosen this path and taken a step into the unknown. Thank you to everyone who has followed along for your support!

Tomorrow we turn northwest and join the Camino Torres midstream as we continue our slow journey to Santiago. We know almost nothing about this camino but I’m sure more adventures await!
I love the shot with the cat!
 
Ideal sleeping bag liner whether we want to add a thermal plus to our bag, or if we want to use it alone to sleep in shelters or hostels. Thanks to its mummy shape, it adapts perfectly to our body.

€46,-
And p.s. I have been to Sernacelhe and I bet you will like it!
I am constantly amazed at the extent of your Portuguese travels! Yes I do like Sernancelhe and I posted a picture of the church in the new Torres thread.

P.S. Thank you for your other kind comments and repeated encouragement and I’ll look up the blog now.
 
Get a spanish phone number with Airalo. eSim, so no physical SIM card. Easy to use app to add more funds if needed.
After 36 days, we have finished the 650km of the Caminho Nascente
Has it been that long? Thank you for the wonderful posts, Nick! I'm looking forward to continuing with you on the Torres and beyond.
I think that this thread may be singlehandedly responsible for awakening public interest in this Caminho
Sample size of one, but that's certainly the case for me. It looks wonderful! If you didn't have time for the entire Caminho, where whould you recommend to start roughly midway?
 
Apart from filling me with envy your posts and pictures have lifted my spirit no end. It’s great to follow your path, even if it is from a distance. If they ever let us out of this place .........

Thanks!
Thanks for following and supporting us and I’m glad that we lifted your spirits! I feel for you regarding the Australia travel ban as it has also affected me going the other way. Hopefully it will end earlier than the current mid-2022 thinking.
 
Well luckily I haven’t finalised my flight to Portugal just yet. After your wonderful tantalising posts and suggestions for rest days, I’m thinking of extending my trip and also continuing to Braga.
thanks Wendy and Nick.
Thank you and maybe you should wait a bit longer to see what the Geira is like after Braga! 🤣 Let us know if we can assist with your planning.
 
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Technical backpack for day trips with backpack cover and internal compartment for the hydration bladder. Ideal daypack for excursions where we need a medium capacity backpack. The back with Air Flow System creates large air channels that will keep our back as cool as possible.

€83,-
Has it been that long? Thank you for the wonderful posts, Nick! I'm looking forward to continuing with you on the Torres and beyond.
Thank you! Yes, we were a bit slow. We took three rest days and some other days were quite short, so you could do it in a week less without much difficulty.

Sample size of one, but that's certainly the case for me. It looks wonderful! If you didn't have time for the entire Caminho, where whould you recommend to start roughly midway?
Évora would be an obvious choice as it’s the biggest city on the caminho and easy to get to from Lisbon. It’s before halfway but it would give you about equal time in the Alentejo and Beiras (18-20 days total). With a bit less time, Estremoz, three stages after Évora. But then you’d miss Évoramonte! Going back through our stages, the three after Estremoz weren’t among the most interesting in terms of end-of-stage places but you could do longer stages here to get to Alter do Chão more quickly.
 
My Caminho Nascente Highlights article is now published!

It's been so much fun to look back on this camino even though it was very recent. Sometimes it can be hard to grasp the entire sweep of a long camino when you're in the middle of it and focusing on one day at a time, so to look back on it and form an overall picture of the entire camino has been really worthwhile.

We also now have a Caminho Nascente General Discussion thread.
 
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The focus is on reducing the risk of failure through being well prepared. 2nd ed.
In retrospect, what stands out the most, Nick?
I think just the adventure of it all. We felt as though we were virtually the first people who had ever walked this route (not true but not that far off!). We knew essentially nothing about it when we started and there were surprises every day. Many times the path was so overgrown that we had to hack our way through it - once an arrow pointed to the trail and we literally could not see the path because it was so overgrown, and we went the wrong way and round in circles for a while until we finally figured out that the path was right where the arrow had been pointing the whole time (FYI @gracethepilgrim, that's a right turn somewhere between Alcoutim and Mesquita!). Some days we came across wild cattle and had to be careful and had to climb fences. Other days we would come to a town we had barely heard of 48 hours earlier and suddenly be climbing castle towers and making other discoveries.

Basically, on one hand it felt so rural, so remote and so isolated - which was brilliant on the trail - but on the other hand there were somehow so many historic towns and villages to stay in that there were almost always interesting places to explore at the end of the day. And that seems like a pretty rare combination!

Edit: Oh, and castles and cherries!
 
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@jungleboy My husband and I were in Tavira for 4 weeks last winter. We were thrilled to find the church and searched for see the yellow arrows all around town (pics attached). Then we found your podcast recounting your experience. What a resource you've created!! Thank you.
 

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Many times the path was so overgrown that we had to hack our way through it - once an arrow pointed to the trail and we literally could not see the path because it was so overgrown
I don't know how I missed your post, Nick; a very nice reflection of your thoughts in answering VN's question.
My question is...why hadn't you posted a picture of the machete you used?...Yeah, I'm just being my sometimes silly self.🤣
 
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