Fishermen's Trail

The trail starts at Praia de São Torpes with the Sines industrial zone still behind you, and the first ten kilometres of low cliff and small coves into Porto Covo are the gentlest walking it ever offers. From Porto Covo the real character sets in: dune track, frequently loose enough to sink into, running above one beach after another past Ilha do Pessegueiro and the Malhão sands. That is nearly 20 km of it to Vila Nova de Milfontes, and the surface rather than the climbing is what decides the day, so signed timings and your own tend to part company. Milfontes is the largest town of the northern half and sits on the Mira, which the marked route crosses by the road bridge at the edge of town, about two kilometres of tarmac either side. Past Praia das Furnas the going firms up onto sandy track and low cliff for the run down to Almograve. Villages and cafés come more often on this stretch than anywhere else on the route.

Logistics: The Mira at Vila Nova de Milfontes: the signed line goes inland through the town and over the road bridge, while a small boat from the town quay to the Praia das Furnas landing cuts out roughly 4 km of road. The boat is an alternative, not the marked route, so the day works either way.

Navigation: Blue and green stripes on posts and rocks, walked in either direction, with crossed stripes marking the branch you do not want. Easy going with the sea on your right. The only real decision is at Vila Nova de Milfontes, where the marked line turns inland through the town for the bridge and the boat crossing is unsigned as part of the route.

The best of the northern coast and the first stretch that feels committing. Red and ochre fossil dune sand out of Almograve for the first couple of hours, slow work, and then around Cavaleiro the surface turns to gravel farm track and the cliff line becomes continuous. The lighthouse at Cabo Sardão stands above the stacks where white storks nest on the sea cliffs, dozens of nests in use, which is not something they do anywhere else. Entrada da Barca is a working fishing cove with a steep drop in and climb out. Zambujeira do Mar, above its own bay, is the only town on the stretch and the natural halfway break. South of it the path narrows and runs close to the edge for a long way, with a couple of short sharp pitches, before quitting the coast at about km 80 for lanes and the Seixe valley into Odeceixe.

Navigation: Reliably marked in blue and green along the cliff edge. Two signed variants leave Almograve and rejoin after about a kilometre, so either is fine. The rest is a matter of staying on the seaward line where farm tracks run off inland.

The recovery day, and the only part of the trail that spends real time away from the sea. The route drops to the Seixe and crosses into Odeceixe, and with it out of the Alentejo and into the Algarve, then follows the south bank of the river out to the beach and the viewpoint above the river mouth. From Praia das Adegas it is back on low clifftop sand track past Baía dos Tiros and the Samouqueira pines, and then the coast is left behind for good: farmland, gravel track and quiet lane through Rogil and down into Aljezur, which sits inland below its castle. Lower, more sheltered and better populated than anything either side, with settlements coming often enough that the day never feels remote.

Logistics: Two signed options run from Odeceixe to Aljezur, the coastal line described here and an inland one about 5 km shorter. Both finish in Aljezur, so the choice changes the length of the day rather than where it ends.

Navigation: The split at Odeceixe is the thing to get right: blue and green stripes for the coastal line, red and white for the shorter inland one. Beyond Rogil the route is on tracks and lanes with more junctions than the cliff sections, so the waymarks need more attention even though the walking is easier.

The steepest section on the trail and the one that most often gets underestimated. It leaves Aljezur inland on lanes with an early climb, picks up forest single track, and reaches the sea at Praia da Amoreira before running on cliff path and cycle track to Monte Clérigo. From there the sand takes over again for about 6 km over Ponta da Atalaia, where a stork's nest sits on a rock stack just offshore, and into Arrifana. Past Arrifana the trail turns its back on the cliffs for most of a day, on sandy farm and forest track through cork oak and stone pine that give far less shade than they look like they should, touching the sea only at Praia do Canal, until the dune system behind Praia da Bordeira brings it back to the coast at Carrapateira. Beyond Praia do Amado it commits to the cliff edge properly: narrow single track, a steep drop to each beach and a long climb straight back out, the worst pitch saved for the last couple of kilometres and the same ground carrying on into the next section.

Logistics: There are two signed routes out of Aljezur to Arrifana, the coastal one described here and an inland one roughly 6 km shorter that misses the beaches entirely. Past Carrapateira the only place to buy water is Praia do Amado, and there are no refill points between there and Vila do Bispo.

Navigation: Blue and green throughout on the coastal line, red and white on the inland alternatives, and the route divides at both Aljezur and again twice in the couple of kilometres before Arrifana. Those last two splits are where people wander, because the informal tracks along the field edges look as walked as the signed one.

Two different walks either side of Sagres. The cliff pitches carried over from the previous section finish within a couple of kilometres and the trail turns inland over open fields and gravel roads to Vila do Bispo, which is unhurried, easy going and a genuine change of pace. Then the southwest corner: back onto the clifftop below Torre de Aspa, narrow rocky single track over Ponta Ruiva and the banded cliffs at Praia do Telheiro, and out around Cabo de São Vicente, where the lighthouse stands a few hundred metres off the line. Past Sagres the trail swings east along the south coast and is mild at first, through Martinhal and Barranco to the small beaches at Ingrina and Zavial, where a loose-rock descent hints at what is coming. From Praia das Furnas on it becomes an almost unbroken sequence of short steep pitches on loose stone, in and out of Praia da Figueira and Praia Santa, and that ground runs past the end of the section without letting up.

Logistics: The route divides about 6 km past Vila do Bispo, coastal in blue and green or inland in red and white, both about the same length to Sagres. Sagres is the last town before the hardest ground on the trail, and there is no village on the route between it and Salema.

Navigation: Two places matter. The signed split about 6 km past Vila do Bispo, where the coastal blue and green parts from the red and white inland Historical Way. And a turn roughly 2 km before Sagres where the trail leaves the road for the cliffs; miss it and you walk the roadside into town on worse ground with worse views.

It opens in the last of the hard ground, steep loose pitches down to Praia Santa and back out, and then it simply stops: Salema ends it and nothing afterwards is difficult. Low limestone coast follows, short ups and downs, the Roman ruins at Boca do Rio, the cove villages of Cabanas Velhas and Burgau, and quiet cliff path into Praia da Luz. The one sustained climb of the section comes on the far side of Luz, straight up onto Rocha Negra, and is followed by open clifftop to Porto de Mós. From there the trail joins the boardwalks and steps around the stacks and coves of Ponta da Piedade and stays crowded to the end, through Praia do Camilo, Dona Ana and the town beaches into Lagos. A busy, well-trodden finish that feels nothing at all like the west coast.

Logistics: The waymarked finish is Lagos railway station on the far side of town, not the marina or the old town, so there is another kilometre or so after the beaches if you want the official end.

Navigation: Straightforward, and the waymarks hold up even through the rough ground at the start. Around Ponta da Piedade the trail mixes with tourist boardwalks and viewpoint spurs, so the line is less obvious than it has been all week even though nothing is at stake. Several people finish at Dona Ana or the marina; the marked route carries on through the town to the station.