Our inn at Milfontes (Milreis) was a quirky angular room overlooking the main pedestrian street, and also the local surfer bar which remained open and active until 4 am.
Reading over tomorrow’s walk description
We headed our way down the streets to the boardwalk, got past the battalion of cats guarding the ferry and hopped on for a ride that took us over the half-kilometer wide Rio Mira.
Milfontes is a city of cats
Our ride
The alternative was a 3-4 km roadwalk upriver to the bridge and back down again, so it was a pretty easy call to take a short boat ride instead. No cats joined us on the ride.
Milfontes from mid-river
Clouds kept the temperature down. The Atlantic storm system that brought the clouds also brought a swell, which a surfing class was using to good effect.
Although the Trail proper was up on the dunes, we followed a group of French walkers along the beach, preferring the hard-packed sand to the loose sand up on the dunes. This worked well enough until we reached the end of the beach. The exit was a steep scramble up a brittle shale cliff pocked with seeps that kept the rock wet and slippery.
Our beach exit
We are old enough that rock scrambles are not really our idea of fun, but the alternative was walking back a kilometer and that seemed even less fun, so up we went, the Frenchies coaching and encouraging us. I tried to take a picture of Cathy mastering the rock, but she objected the instant I pulled out my phone. It worried me a little bit that her attention was directed toward not being photographed in a potentially embarrassing moment, rather than toward not falling to her death. But she made it up without too much trouble.
View of Milfontes from the cliff top
Much of the walk along the dune tops was shaded by laurels and pines, shade we missed dearly yesterday but which was superfluous on this cloudy morning.
The light on the sea was cool and subdued, in contrast to the sparkles and jewels of yesterday. The plant life was much more varied and interesting.
The sand in the dunes changed from tan to red, and was much less deep than yesterday’s, making for easier walking.
We dropped down from the dunes to the beach again, thinking to have lunch and maybe a refreshing wade. We found a nice spot with good sitting rocks after a kilometer or so, but by that time the tide was getting high, the beach was getting narrow, and we were backed by cliffs. Lunch was a bit hurried, as we didn’t want to get cut off at high tide. Another cliff scramble was in order.
This scramble was aided by a rope draped over the cliff, secured to an alarmingly small rock at the top. But we made it ok, and continued our walk among red dunes, green plant life and a steel blue ocean.
Our inn was an 8 room guest house with a pool, but the clouds made it too cool to swim. Although not too cool for the yellow lab presiding over the premises.
Longueira is distinctly less touristy than Porto Covo or Milfontes. It had but a single restaurant open (O Josue), so all the walkers ended up there: Paul and Lisa from Calgary, Andy from Oxford, who made for very pleasant and convivial company. I should add that we encountered very few Americans here (or elsewhere in Portugal). We were probably outnumbered 3 to 1 by Canadians (even though it was only October), and Europeans outnumbered North Americans by a similar ratio.
Dinner was a fine fresh-caught bream, nothing fancy, but very good indeed.
Our host brought several local liqueurs for us to try after dessert, teasing us that we could not possibly identify the plants they were extracted from (we did guess two of three although I have now forgotten what they were).
