Going the Distance
- Heather Anne Lee
- Fred Lopez
We stand at the top of the steep Atlantic shoreline, shoulder our backpacks, and gradually begin our descent. With crashing waves, a stiff wind, and the chatter of a dozen women as the soundtrack to our morning, we follow narrow, centuries-old tracks that zigzag down from clifftops to the seemingly inaccessible, sea-sprayed rocky outcrops.
This is Fishermen’s Trail, a 145-mile stretch of Portugal’s Rota Vicentina coast that snakes across pristine beaches, up and down hill-sized dunes, along close-to-the-edge clifftop paths, and through wildflower fields, eucalyptus, acacia, and pine-scented forests. Besides the odd villager or fisherman, no one walked these cliffs at the continent’s edge until it was established as an official hiking trail in 2013. It remains remote, wild, and relatively unexplored … exactly what I had hoped for and more.
There’s just something about being out in the open, surrounded by fresh air, challenging your body while discovering new places. It gives you a clarity that is hard to attain in the midst of the daily grind. In fact, it is the complete opposite of quick coffee dates, where you update your friends on the past six months in 30 minutes while keeping an eye on the alerts popping up on your phone.
For me, hiking is a cathartic blend of focus and disconnect, especially when it’s a guided hike like this one, organized by Adventures in Good Company. With no compass required, you are left to engage in lengthy conversation with new friends or simply fall back in solitude to let your thoughts (and body) wander along the panorama. Somehow, just putting one foot in front of another for hours has taught me so much: how to be present, how to think more clearly, how to connect deeper with the people around me.
— Pico Lyer
Five days and more than 60 miles in Portugal did all that and more.
Don’t be fooled by the mostly flat trails and little elevation change. Much of the Fishermen’s Trail is spent walking on—or, more regularly, slogging through— soft dune-like sand. Views from headlands take the form of panoramic vistas of miles of coastline both north and south, while other, more intimate viewpoints rise steeply above secluded, golden-hued coves. Well-marked paths take you along greywacke cliffs slicing the ocean unmercifully, down to deserted beaches and hidden sandy coves, allowing you to discover the ‘real’ Portugal as you visit places only accessible on foot.
What it lacks in elevation, it more than makes up for in splendidly rugged beauty and rare species of marine life and birds.
Indeed, the Rota Vicentina counts storks as one of its highlights, and for good reason: here, the unusual topography of the land allows hikers to come face-to-face with these iconic birds rather than having to strain their necks to look up at them.
Centuries of seismic activity, volcanic eruptions, and wind and tidal erosion sculpted this coast where storks build nests the size of tractor tires on towering sea stacks. This is the only place in the world where such nesting behavior can be observed, and it’s pure magic to behold. Their white bodies perched precariously on reed-thin legs, red beaks raised to check wind direction. At any given moment, they leap out of the nest with zest, dropping five or ten stories before spreading its eight-foot, black-tipped wings and gliding over the turbulent surf.
Much like life, it takes bravery to venture out of one’s comfort zone, to pluck up the courage to travel somewhere new and meet up with a group of strangers. But the eminent travel writer Pico Lyer said it best: “Travel is not really about leaving our homes, but leaving our habits.” Getting away from the day-to-day is a powerful change of pace, and the benefits are so vital, so vivid and clear, that traveling is not just a luxury, it becomes a necessity.
