The Fisherman’s Trail (Trilho dos Pescadores) is a long-distance hiking trail in southern Portugal, starting just above Porto Covo and ending in Lagos, which we went through a couple days ago. It is part of the Rota Vicentina network of trails, which runs along the southwest coast of the country. The Fisherman’s Trail is about 143 miles (230 km) long and follows the coastline, passing through small villages, fishing ports, and rugged coastal scenery.
Today the EV1 runs along the same path as the Fisherman’s trail and so we’ve ridden with hikers doing the trail. Our friend Zöe and her mom Anne hiked it a few years ago, and really enjoyed it. Zambujeira was their favorite town of the trip, which is where we stayed last night.
Near the lighthouse of Cabo Sardão, the trails diverged and we went inland for a bit, then overlapped with the walkers a few more times until we all arrived at Porto Covo, where we camped for the night.
We made slow progress on the trail, partly to take pictures and partly because of the sand. We had to push our bikes a little bit, but not too much.
We camped in Porto Covo, and went into town for dinner. Lots of hikers also were staying at the campground. It seems that most hikers are supported by companies that arrange all their accommodation and ferry their stuff from start to finish each day, but some others seem to be carrying everything they need. We heard many accents along the way. People come from all over the world to hike this trail.
Dinner was great. We had baked octopus with potatoes, broccoli and a salad, and meant to have some fish as well but the waitress forgot about the fish until it was too late. No matter! When the first dish arrived we both thought that we could stop with that.
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