Yet again sleep eluded me. Got about 3 hours. Today is supposed to be one of the harder ones. It’s longer than most and has quite a bit of uphill – but compared to other hikes it’s fairly tame. 26km/16 miles and 500m/1600ft of up.
Category: Rota Vincentina
Day 7 (7.5 hours)
It was cold overnight – so cold the woolly hat was needed to keep my ears warm. My Western Mountaineering sleeping bag kept the rest of me toasty.
Had my first good night’s sleep – 9 hours – but did not want to leave my cosy cocoon at 6.30am.
Day 6 (7.5 hours)
Thigh chafing has eased. Guess the nappy rash cream works. Will be liberally applying it over the next couple of days.
Day 5 (6 hours)
Pleasant enough hike in the morning, along gravelled farm tracks, and down into Aljezur. A Scottish couple (heading south) that I met a couple of days ago said it had a touch of Royston Vasey about it! From my brief encounter with the town I would have to concur – went into a cafe for a coke and was ignored for 10 minutes. Guess they don’t like tourists.
Day 4 (6.5 hours)
A decent day, but I did learn a couple of lessons.
- Heading south is better! I’m going north due to transport – it was hard to get train/bus to the north end on a Sunday. The good news is that it means the sun is behind me rather than in my face. The bad news is the wind generally comes from the north-west, so that is in my face when near the coast.
- This is not an easy hike for camping. B&Bs, hotels, hostels are better, but need to be planned as good camping spots are very hard to find. I still like the security of carrying my own sleeping arrangements though (despite the weight).
Grumpy Hiker 