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peregrina2000 said:I was in southern Portugal this past weekend and saw some of the markings for the Rota Vicentina myself. It looks to me like there is good infrastructure there for the route up to Santiago do Cacem,
Since there were some recent posts on a Lisbon thread about starting from the southern tip of Portugal and walking the Rota Vicentina (not a caminho, so maybe not for the purists), I thought I'd just bring this post up and ask if anyone has walked this route, and if so, how was it?
Bom caminho, Laurie
Hello Peregrina2000,There have been some posts from people wanting to start their Caminho Portugues on the southern Atlantic coast of Portugal. I think that anyone who has done that has had to find his/her way on quiet roads with no marked trails.
There is now a fully marked off-road trail from Sagres (southwest tip of the country) to Santiago do Cacem (about 100 miles from Lisbon). That still leaves a gap between Santiago do Cacem and Lisbon, but the gap is shrinking.
This "Rota Vicentina" is an effort to drum up rural tourism, and I know it is not based on anything having to do with the Camino. But this might be an acceptable second-best way to start walking in the south for those who want a longer walk through Portugal to Santiago.
I have been in Santiago do Cacem and have seen the church to Santiago that is there, so there must be some bygone connection.
No albergues of course, but the route seems to be charted to take you through towns with very affordable places.
http://www.rotavicentina.com/en/
http://intelligenttravel.nationalgeogra ... -portugal/
Bom caminho, Laurie
Nancy, I have been looking at doing some or all of the Rota Vicentina the end of Sept. I will be in the Algarve for my daughters wedding and it looks like a great add on to our trip. www.rotavicentina .com is a great site and offers quite a bit of info.Hello Peregrina2000,
My husband and I are interested in walking the Rota Vicentina and then going on through to Santiago and Finesterre. Have you walked this route before? Any good maps or resources you could recommend? Any new information about the road from Santiago do Cacem to Lisbon?
Nancy
Nancy
After googling I found the linkStarting from Cabo São Vicente, the utmost south west point of Europe and Portugal you'll find the" last German sausage before America"
How to get from there to America after you bought a sausage does not tell the story but the best alternative is to swim...
I only read once about a Dutch guy on the internet who walked from Cabo São Vicente to Santiago .can't find his blog anymore . But I remember it was a pretty lonesome trail for some time. From São Vicente to Lisbon it is about 300 kms so ending up in Santiago is about 850 kms
Great information Judy ! Compliments !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.
Hi, Nancy,
Welcome to the forum!
I haven´t walked this route, but I do think the online resources look quite complete. I was in Sagres about a year ago and saw a lot of markings, so I think it must be pretty well marked.
Hoping some of our Portugal-based people can help out with some of these questions, but I don´t think that anyone is working on getting the route from Santiago do Cacem marked to Lisbon. The one possibility I had heard about involved both a ferry from Troia over to Setubal and then bypassing Lisbon by staying on the east side of the Tejo River, which I wouldn´t think would be too appealing.
Let us know if you do walk it, it´d be great to hear some first hand experiences. Buen camino, Laurie
Thanks so much, Judy, this kind of information is very hard to come by.
I know this isn't officially a camino, but then, why is there an ancient stone carving of Santiago in the church in a town named Santiago do Cacem?!
bom caminho, Laurie
Just by chance just read a posting on Facebook (a Spanish Via de la Plata group) from somebody who walked the Rota Vicentina and on to Lisbon.
Here is what he said he did :
Walked Santiago do Cacem to Mélides.
From Mélides he went to Troia Peninsula. He then took a ferry from the pier to Setábul. From Setábul he walked to Barreiros where he took another ferry which took him to Lisbon.
Laurie mentioned this option above but her version skipped Lisbon. This option takes you there.
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