My previous blog detailing how I came to discover the Vicentina Trail also explains how I came to be at the best hostel in the world and how I met my new walking companion for the trail, Jolien, a sparky, funny, clever, young Dutch woman who had arrived at the hostel by mistake, escaping a bad Workaway experience, and with no plans to hike! Anyway, she was well onboard for joining my walking expedition, and so after a few days bonding and taking some mini walks to test out her inexperienced feet, we were ready! Tomorrow we would leave the hostel ‘Dagasoul’ and walk…

We will walk the Vicentina Trail which runs from Sagres in the south all the way up to Santiago do Cacem (about 150kmsouth of Lisbon.) There are two paths we can take from here – the Fisherman’s Trail, along the coast, and the Historical Way, inland. Aljezur is already quite far up from Sagres but the plan is to walk from here, and maybe even continue all the way to Lisbon! We will see what happens…

Both are well marked (blue and green stripes for the coastal route and red and white stripes for the inland) and both have villages or towns with accommodation at every 18 – 25 km.

Travelling for an as yet  undetermined length of time means you always need to try to keep a tight budget – the less you spend, the longer you can not work for! So, with that in mind, I did an exploratory accommodation search in the towns and villages on both routes and found they were similar prices, averaging at 30 euros a night. These costs are way more the Camino Frances hostels, which charge just 6 euros in a municipal run one, but that’s the way it is! At least with two people we can often have a guest house and enjoy twin beds for the same price as a Portuguese bunk bed hostel! Jolien and I had already walked a little on the Fisherman and the Historical, and although the coast had been pretty we worried it could get a bit same-y. We’d both really enjoyed the rugged countryside trails, plus Jolien’s trainers had not filled with sand! So, all things equal money wise, and both with a love for the countryside, it was decided – we would walk the Vicentina trail following the historical way! 

We spent the day preparing. Jolien had been travelling with 11kg of belongings in her back pack as she had not been expecting to hike. Celsoe and Sofia agreed to store some of her belongings in their garage (with Liisa’s gear) for her to collect after the trip and so she re-packed for the walking adventure. We took took a relaxing day, generally pampered ourselves, ate well, packed well, prepared snacks and lunches for the walk tomorrow and enjoyed the last night in our base, free to chill and laze and relax…