LIVE from the Camino Caminho Nascente from Tavira - Spring 2021

[Elle Bieling]

over 7km with most of that section being on a Roman road - the longest stretch of Roman road I’ve walked on apart from possibly the Via Appia in Rome. It was also a mountain switchback road, unlike the straight, flat roads we tend to associate with the Roman Empire.

How fabulous! I never knew of any place, where the preserved Roman roads were so long!

Another descent, a short ascent and another descent later, Celorico da Beira and its castle were in view. I did a rough count and figured we have seen 13 castles on this camino with another one coming tomorrow!

I love castles, so this sounds like a Camino I need to put on my bucket list!

 

[gracethepilgrim]

Each post, Nick, amps up my excitement as I begin planning for a September Nascente. Thanks again for these wonderful descriptions.

 

[jungleboy]

I love castles, so this sounds like a Camino I need to put on my bucket list!

Castles + cherries = book it for next spring!

 

[jungleboy]

Each post, Nick, amps up my excitement as I begin planning for a September Nascente. Thanks again for these wonderful descriptions.

Oh wow, that’s great! Someone else contacted me today who is starting next week so maybe we can all put this camino on the map!

 

[Holly Mitchem]

Cherries and castles! What a wonderful combination!

 

[jungleboy]

Caminho Nascente Day 36: Celorico da Beira to Trancoso (~19km).

We set out in a reflective mood on our last day on the Nascente and walked in overcast conditions for most of the stage. There was a necropolis featuring rock-cut tombs early in the walk, but nothing especially noteworthy after that, with a little bit of elevation change but not as much as in some of the previous stages. As always on this camino, it was very rural and very scenic and the mountain views of recent days continued. I’m not a cat person by any stretch of the imagination (I’m mildly allergic), but this was a very picturesque scene on the trail:



We arrived in Trancoso by lunchtime, and by the time we went out to explore the town a few hours later, it had turned into a beautiful afternoon. Trancoso is one of the ‘historical villages’ of this region and is very deserving of that moniker as it contains city walls and towers, a good castle and a well-preserved historic core. Overall, it was a really worthy end to this camino.



So that’s it - sort of. After 36 days, we have finished the 650km of the Caminho Nascente, from the sea views of the Algarve to the overgrown grasslands of the Alentejo to the highest mountain range in Portugal, the Serra da Estrela. And what a camino it is! I’ll have more to say and write about it when we get home (whenever that may be), but for now we are thrilled to have chosen this path and taken a step into the unknown. Thank you to everyone who has followed along for your support!

Tomorrow we turn northwest and join the Camino Torres midstream as we continue our slow journey to Santiago. We know almost nothing about this camino but I’m sure more adventures await!

 

[peregrina2000]

I think that this thread may be singlehandedly responsible for awakening public interest in this Caminho. The Alentejo/Ribatejo tourism board should publish it!

Can’t wait to hear about the Torres, bom caminho! Have you seen @magwood’s blog? There might be some good info there for you, but you might not want to spoil the surprises that await.

Thanks so much for taking the time, it is so much fun to read your posts and enjoy your gorgeous pictures.

And p.s. I have been to Sernacelhe and I bet you will like it!

 

[Isca-camigo]

Caminho Nascente Day 36: Celorico da Beira to Trancoso (~19km).

We set out in a reflective mood on our last day on the Nascente and walked in overcast conditions for most of the stage. There was a necropolis featuring rock-cut tombs early in the walk, but nothing especially noteworthy after that, with a little bit of elevation change but not as much as in some of the previous stages. As always on this camino, it was very rural and very scenic and the mountain views of recent days continued. I’m not a cat person by any stretch of the imagination (I’m mildly allergic), but this was a very picturesque scene on the trail:

View attachment 101671

We arrived in Trancoso by lunchtime, and by the time we went out to explore the town a few hours later, it had turned into a beautiful afternoon. Trancoso is one of the ‘historical villages’ of this region and is very deserving of that moniker as it contains city walls and towers, a good castle and a well-preserved historic core. Overall, it was a really worthy end to this camino.

View attachment 101670

So that’s it - sort of. After 36 days, we have finished the 650km of the Caminho Nascente, from the sea views of the Algarve to the overgrown grasslands of the Alentejo to the highest mountain range in Portugal, the Serra da Estrela. And what a camino it is! I’ll have more to say and write about it when we get home (whenever that may be), but for now we are thrilled to have chosen this path and taken a step into the unknown. Thank you to everyone who has followed along for your support!

Tomorrow we turn northwest and join the Camino Torres midstream as we continue our slow journey to Santiago. We know almost nothing about this camino but I’m sure more adventures await!

Wow 36 days seem to have flown by, thank you for you lovely descriptive accounts of your Caminho.
Lots of hugs from Exeter

 

[CalgaryLynn]

Caminho Nascente Day 36: Celorico da Beira to Trancoso (~19km).

We set out in a reflective mood on our last day on the Nascente and walked in overcast conditions for most of the stage. There was a necropolis featuring rock-cut tombs early in the walk, but nothing especially noteworthy after that, with a little bit of elevation change but not as much as in some of the previous stages. As always on this camino, it was very rural and very scenic and the mountain views of recent days continued. I’m not a cat person by any stretch of the imagination (I’m mildly allergic), but this was a very picturesque scene on the trail:

View attachment 101671

We arrived in Trancoso by lunchtime, and by the time we went out to explore the town a few hours later, it had turned into a beautiful afternoon. Trancoso is one of the ‘historical villages’ of this region and is very deserving of that moniker as it contains city walls and towers, a good castle and a well-preserved historic core. Overall, it was a really worthy end to this camino.

View attachment 101670

So that’s it - sort of. After 36 days, we have finished the 650km of the Caminho Nascente, from the sea views of the Algarve to the overgrown grasslands of the Alentejo to the highest mountain range in Portugal, the Serra da Estrela. And what a camino it is! I’ll have more to say and write about it when we get home (whenever that may be), but for now we are thrilled to have chosen this path and taken a step into the unknown. Thank you to everyone who has followed along for your support!

Tomorrow we turn northwest and join the Camino Torres midstream as we continue our slow journey to Santiago. We know almost nothing about this camino but I’m sure more adventures await!

I love the shot with the cat!

 

[jungleboy]

And p.s. I have been to Sernacelhe and I bet you will like it!

I am constantly amazed at the extent of your Portuguese travels! Yes I do like Sernancelhe and I posted a picture of the church in the new Torres thread.

P.S. Thank you for your other kind comments and repeated encouragement and I’ll look up the blog now.

 

[Lexicos]

Apart from filling me with envy your posts and pictures have lifted my spirit no end. It’s great to follow your path, even if it is from a distance. If they ever let us out of this place .........

Thanks!

 

[gracethepilgrim]

Well luckily I haven’t finalised my flight to Portugal just yet. After your wonderful tantalising posts and suggestions for rest days, I’m thinking of extending my trip and also continuing to Braga.
thanks Wendy and Nick.

 

[VNwalking]

After 36 days, we have finished the 650km of the Caminho Nascente

Has it been that long? Thank you for the wonderful posts, Nick! I'm looking forward to continuing with you on the Torres and beyond.

I think that this thread may be singlehandedly responsible for awakening public interest in this Caminho

Sample size of one, but that's certainly the case for me. It looks wonderful! If you didn't have time for the entire Caminho, where whould you recommend to start roughly midway?

 

[jungleboy]

Apart from filling me with envy your posts and pictures have lifted my spirit no end. It’s great to follow your path, even if it is from a distance. If they ever let us out of this place .........

Thanks!

Thanks for following and supporting us and I’m glad that we lifted your spirits! I feel for you regarding the Australia travel ban as it has also affected me going the other way. Hopefully it will end earlier than the current mid-2022 thinking.

 

[jungleboy]

Well luckily I haven’t finalised my flight to Portugal just yet. After your wonderful tantalising posts and suggestions for rest days, I’m thinking of extending my trip and also continuing to Braga.
thanks Wendy and Nick.

Thank you and maybe you should wait a bit longer to see what the Geira is like after Braga! Let us know if we can assist with your planning.

 

[jungleboy]

Has it been that long? Thank you for the wonderful posts, Nick! I'm looking forward to continuing with you on the Torres and beyond.

Thank you! Yes, we were a bit slow. We took three rest days and some other days were quite short, so you could do it in a week less without much difficulty.

Sample size of one, but that's certainly the case for me. It looks wonderful! If you didn't have time for the entire Caminho, where whould you recommend to start roughly midway?

Évora would be an obvious choice as it’s the biggest city on the caminho and easy to get to from Lisbon. It’s before halfway but it would give you about equal time in the Alentejo and Beiras (18-20 days total). With a bit less time, Estremoz, three stages after Évora. But then you’d miss Évoramonte! Going back through our stages, the three after Estremoz weren’t among the most interesting in terms of end-of-stage places but you could do longer stages here to get to Alter do Chão more quickly.

 

[jungleboy]

My Caminho Nascente Highlights article is now published!

It's been so much fun to look back on this camino even though it was very recent. Sometimes it can be hard to grasp the entire sweep of a long camino when you're in the middle of it and focusing on one day at a time, so to look back on it and form an overall picture of the entire camino has been really worthwhile.

We also now have a Caminho Nascente General Discussion thread.

 

[VNwalking]

so to look back on it and form an overall picture of the entire camino has been really worthwhile.

In retrospect, what stands out the most, Nick?

 

[jungleboy]

In retrospect, what stands out the most, Nick?

I think just the adventure of it all. We felt as though we were virtually the first people who had ever walked this route (not true but not that far off!). We knew essentially nothing about it when we started and there were surprises every day. Many times the path was so overgrown that we had to hack our way through it - once an arrow pointed to the trail and we literally could not see the path because it was so overgrown, and we went the wrong way and round in circles for a while until we finally figured out that the path was right where the arrow had been pointing the whole time (FYI @gracethepilgrim, that's a right turn somewhere between Alcoutim and Mesquita!). Some days we came across wild cattle and had to be careful and had to climb fences. Other days we would come to a town we had barely heard of 48 hours earlier and suddenly be climbing castle towers and making other discoveries.

Basically, on one hand it felt so rural, so remote and so isolated - which was brilliant on the trail - but on the other hand there were somehow so many historic towns and villages to stay in that there were almost always interesting places to explore at the end of the day. And that seems like a pretty rare combination!

Edit: Oh, and castles and cherries!

 

[grdemedeiros]

@jungleboy My husband and I were in Tavira for 4 weeks last winter. We were thrilled to find the church and searched for see the yellow arrows all around town (pics attached). Then we found your podcast recounting your experience. What a resource you've created!! Thank you.

 

[Camino Chrissy]

Many times the path was so overgrown that we had to hack our way through it - once an arrow pointed to the trail and we literally could not see the path because it was so overgrown

I don't know how I missed your post, Nick; a very nice reflection of your thoughts in answering VN's question.
My question is...why hadn't you posted a picture of the machete you used?...Yeah, I'm just being my sometimes silly self.

 

[jungleboy]

My question is...why hadn't you posted a picture of the machete you used?...Yeah, I'm just being my sometimes silly self.

Machete-wielder with makeshift machete!

 

[Camino Chrissy]

Machete-wielder with makeshift machete!

View attachment 154727

Thanks, Nick, you never let me down when I ask a question, whether it is important, or not.

 

[peregrina2000]

We are now in an albergue (yes, really) in a tiny village called Mesquita. In the last two years, the villagers have done a remarkable job transforming the village into a camino destination. Apart from the four-bed albergue, there’s also a restaurant

I’m watching Álvaro Lazaga’s most recent camino videos on the Nascente, which is one of my 2025 options (never too early to start thinking!). The stage I just looked at was from Alcoutim to Mesquita and he says repeatedly that there is no restaurant in the village. What do you make of that? He was just there a month or so ago.

 

[jungleboy]

Sadly Google confirms the restaurant is no longer open. But you would love the Nascente!

 

[peregrina2000]

I have deleted a couple of posts that will be unnecessarily confusing to future pilgrims on the Nascente. Mea culpa.

Nick and Wendy walked Cuba to Alvito (15 km) and Alvito to Viana (12 km) on two days.

Álvaro Lazaga walked it in one stage, and noted that he followed old arrows, not the new markings, which took him off the road on some very nice tracks.

The route he took did not go through Alvito - I’ve attached a google map stringing together of the towns he walked through.




My guess is that the “new camino” takes the road to Alvito, whereas the “old camino,” which Álvaro took, is more off-road and still has yellow arrows.

Álvaro’s tracks on wikiloc for that stage are here.

Cuba - Viana do Alentejo

Cuba - Viana do Alentejo Hiking trail in Cuba, Beja (Portugal). Download its GPS track and follow the itinerary on a map. Vía Nascente Parte 10

www.wikiloc.com

So I am surmising here, but I think that what this means is that the “new route” keeps you on the road and takes you through Alvito, but the “old route” is off road and bypasses Alvito but will also take you to Viana de Mondejar.

 

[peregrina2000]

The way marker we spoke to yesterday said his colleague in charge of this section tried to divert the camino from the road, but needed permission from five property owners to do so and while four gave permission, one did not and that meant the alternative path couldn’t be created.

The route to Évora from Viana has been taken off the highway. Looks like the permission has been granted, but it also looks like the off-road camino goes through a lot of very soggy marshy areas and has a lot of river crossings. An improvement, no doubt, but maybe pretty challenging at certain times of year.

Álvaro says it adds about 5 kms

Álvaro’s tracks for Viana to Évora here

Viana do Alentejo - Évora

Viana do Alentejo - Évora Hiking trail in Viana do Alentejo, Évora (Portugal). Download its GPS track and follow the itinerary on a map. Vía Nascente Parte 11

www.wikiloc.com

I hope that I have got things straight — I’ve had to delete several of my posts because they were confusing. I know Nick and Wendy have no interest in this, but anyone who is planning the Nascente should pay attention to these changes.

 

[jungleboy]

Nick and Wendy walked Cuba to Alvito (15 km) and Alvito to Viana (12 km) on two days.

Wow, those are much shorter days than I remembered! But I loved this part of the Nascente. The five-day stretch Beja-Cuba-Alvito-Viana-Évora is one of my favourite memories of that caminho and sums up walking in the Alentejo brilliantly: each day seemed so rural and remote and yet at the end of the day there was a fantastic historic town waiting for us. From these stages I began to perceive the north-south defensive line that has existed for centuries to guard against Spanish invasion from the east, with towns and castles conveniently set one day's walk apart.

The route to Évora from Viana has been taken off the highway. Looks like the permission has been granted, but it also looks like the off-road camino goes through a lot of very soggy marshy areas and has a lot of river crossings. An improvement, no doubt, but maybe pretty challenging at certain times of year.

Álvaro says it adds about 5 kms

That was already 36km Viana to Évora with no way to break it up three years ago (and trust me, we looked into it!). Did he walk the 41km or find somewhere to stay?

 

[peregrina2000]

That was already 36km Viana to Évora with no way to break it up three years ago (and trust me, we looked into it!). Did he walk the 41km or find somewhere to stay?

I hesitated when I heard him say that he added 5 kms to his day by taking the new squishy marshy route. Because his tracks say that this new route is “only” 37.66 kms. So it looks like the new route doesn’t add much at all.

 

[Friend from Barquinha]

This is one of my favourite parts of Portugal--beautiful countryside with the cork oaks everywhere.

I've been reading the last few posts, with updates from Alvaro's recent trek through the area, and following along with Google Maps and adding my own recollections, from a couple of trips in the area--not walking but some of the time biking--and hoping to walk it in the next year or two!

I was reading more about Viana do Alentejo, which I hadn't been to but sounds an intriguing town, and saw from its municipal website that it has very particular connections with the caminho through the area.

Translated and condensed from the Alentejo/Ribatejo Outdoors website:

"PR1 VNT - Pilgrimage Route to Our Lady of Aires

With common features of the Basilica of Estrela in Lisbon, the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Aires is an excellent example of the Rural Baroque, built from an ancient sixteenth-century hermitage. Following the old paths to Santiago de Compostela and the migration routes of cattle, it is associated with a thanks for release from a great epidemic, which started in the region in the mid-eighteenth century. The territory traveled has ancient olive trees on the abandoned surface of quarries, the beautiful green marble of Viana, as well as a visit to the historical core of Viana do Alentejo.

The route is a Pilgrimage Route to one of the most important Marian Shrines of Alentejo. It is a route with two strands, almost two routes in one, in the form of “a figure eight”. The first part runs through the area of nature and the ancient marble quarry “Verde de Viana” and the second follows the route to the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Aires. The Viana do Alentejo Castle and walking through the village streets loaded with historical and architectural testimonies is only the starting point."

Website:

PR1 VNT - Rota de Peregrinação a Nossa Senhora de Aires [Atualização]

Com traços comuns à Basílica da Estrela em Lisboa, o Santuário de Nossa Senhora de ...

www.alentejo-ribatejo-outdoor.com

It also seems there is a local religious and community fair every year in late September, particularly related to the local pilgrimage, called the Feira d'Aires.

Feira d' Aires • 7 Maravilhas de Portugal®

Viana do Alentejo, Évora Festas e Feiras VOTE JÁ: 760 207 730 Desde 1751 a Feira D’Aires realiza-se em Viana do Alentejo, no fim-de-semana do quarto domingo de setembro. Trata-se...

7maravilhas.pt

It sounds like a wonderful area to explore!

Bom caminho.