Zambujeira do Mar

We left the Fishermen’s trail on 3^rd October 2015, when we arrived in Odeceixe.

It was about 9:20 when we left the Casa da Praia. We walked towards the Chapel of Nossa Senhora do Mar, where the trail begins. We enjoyed the view over the beautiful beach of Zambujeira do Mar and then we went down the stairs that lead us to the beach.

A well defined trail lead us towards the beach of Alteirinhos, an official naturist zone.

A few minutes later, we were back to the sand trails – JB’s least-liked trails, but the most common ones along Fishermen’s Trail. This section of the trail goes inland through pinewoods and acacia forests. Suddenly, we were next to the beach of Carvalhal and, some meters ahead, we glimpsed the beach of Machados. But not before we had passed by a large pasture with animals such as bisons and ostriches.

Beach of Carvalhal

It’s been more than 20 minutes since we saw the beach of Amália until we got there. We had to walk inland and the access to the beach was a bit difficult. Althought there was stairs, the last section of steps had been destroyed by the sea. Fortunately, there was a rope to help us to climb.

Beach of Amália was once known as Praia do Brejão, however, this changed after Amália Rodrigues, the “Queen of Fado”, had choosen this place has “her private beach”.

We had a relaxing lunch at the beach, near the small stream that cascades down the cliff face.
We walked near the sea for several days, but it was only there, on the beach of Amália that we enjoyed walking barefoot on the sand and in the sea water.

Beach of Amália

After spending quite some time in that small paradise, we went back to the trail.

About 40 minutes later, we were passing by the famous restaurant Azenha do Mar. It seems that cheap and delicious seafood is served in there. Unfortunately, we didn’t know that at the time.

We faced another challenge in our walk. Right after we had left behind the fishing harbour of Azenha do Mar, we had to go down a steep slope with many loose stones. We had to walk very carefully otherwise we could easily fall down. Luckily, there was a rope to hold on to.

Fishing harbour of Azenha do Mar

About 1 hour later, both of us saw Algarve region for the first time. It was an amazing view! We were standing on the cliff looking down at Odeceixe beach, a 2 in 1 beach. Odeceixe beach has the particularity of being both a sea and river beach. It is surrounded by Seixe stream at east and north sides and by the sea waters at west side.

Odeceixe beach

Just before we had reached Seixe stream, the trail lead us through a disgusting area used by bathers to urinate and defecate.

The last 30 minutes of our walk were along a paved road parallel to the stream. We crossed the bridge and we arrived in the town of Odeceixe. We spent the night at Casa Morais, in the pink room! This may be the room from Rota Vicentina that we best remember. Althoug I’m not a pinkish person and this is not the type of decoration that I like, I enjoyed a lot to explore this room and to observe every detail, such as the hair dryer’s bag with slipper shape or the corkscrew ready to open a bottle.

Odeceixe

O Chaparro was the chosen restaurant to have dinner. We ordered grilled fish. According to the waiter, the fish name was rascudo. I have no idea what this fish is, maybe it is a local name, I don’t know. We were a bit greedy and we ordered a big slice of cake for each one of us. Actually, we were just curious about several cakes they had. We would like to taste all of them, but just a small piece of each. As this was not possible, we selected two cakes: bolo de alfarroba com noz (carob nut cake) and torta de batata doce com amendoim (sweet potato cake with peanuts). Delicious! But too much cake.

And so was our last day in the the Fishermen’s trail and in the region of Alentejo.

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