5 - 7 days with stages of 16 km or less possible?

trecile · Sep 30, 2024

It will probably never happen, but I'd like to convince my husband to do a short supported walk. I'm thinking about walking the Camino from Lisbon next year (again, but this time without injury or illness!), and my husband and I will travel to Europe together before I start my Camino. So I thought that I might be able to convince him to do a short walk in Portugal before I start my Camino.
When we travel he has no problem walking quite a few miles as a tourist, so I think that he could probably walk up to 10 miles per day without a backpack.

So, I'm looking for suggested short stages on the Fisherman's trail that would suit these requirements.

Edited to add: maybe this trail would be too difficult for my husband, so I'm open to other suggestions.

jungleboy · Sep 30, 2024

Well firstly, it'd be a great choice because the coastal scenery is truly stunning (much more so than on the Portuguese coastal which everyone seems to love anyway!). Whether it's difficult or not is in the eye of the beholder. Some people struggle with the soft sand but Wendy and I didn't.

The stages are pretty fixed, but aren't long. If he'd be willing to up the 16km slightly, the first five days south from Porto Covo would be an excellent choice.

1 - Porto Covo - Vila Nova de Milfontes 20km
2 - Vila Nova de Milfontes - Almograve 15.5km
3 - Almograve - Zambujeira do Mar 22km
4 - Zambujeira do Mar - Odeceixe 18.5km
5 - Odeceixe - Aljezur 18.5km

The third day could possibly be broken up at Cavaleiro about halfway, although a quick search shows only one accommodation option (Casa da Courela) at €162 (looks pretty nice though!).

dick bird · Sep 30, 2024

Have you thought about the Inglés? I think there are a lot of accommodation options so you can achieve shorter stages. It is scenic, it is short, it has some interesting towns along the route and the food and wine are good.

jungleboy · Sep 30, 2024

I think the idea is to be near Lisbon so trecile can then start the CP from there afterwards.

Peterexpatkiwi · Sep 30, 2024

trecile said:
I'm looking for suggested short stages on the Fisherman's trail that would suit these requirements.

I'll l preface this by saying that I have zero experience with this trail yet, just research. As @jungleboy says, the stages are pretty fixed. So short of taxing to and fro your options are limited.

Whilst @jungleboy and Wendy didn't have any difficulties with the soft sand I know that it certainly affected others. I've watched a handful of YouTube videos and it's an almost universal comment. Our very own @NadineK for example.

If you could persuade your husband to meet you at the end of your Camino then perhaps you could take up @dick bird suggestion and walk the Inglès (or the first few days short days)with him?

NadineK · Sep 30, 2024

Echoing what others have said; the stages are, indeed, fairly fixed, so there's not so much wiggle room in sticking to 16km or less. But @jungleboy 's outline above follows the stages that I did (in Spring 2023) and it's a great suggestion. These are fabulous stages (well, every stage is pretty incredible).

However, as @Peterexpatkiwi said, the soft sand certainly needs to be considered when weighing difficulty of the walk! I'm amazed at those who have no trouble (@jungleboy , you and Wendy must have some kind of special superpower). My gaiters were super useful and they kept sand out of my shoes, but the soft sand DEFINITELY slowed my pace down, and I used muscles that I don't normally use when walking on other surfaces (and those muscles weren't used to getting a workout, so were quite sore!).

KeyserSoza · Sep 30, 2024

Don’t underestimate the difficulties when walking long distances on soft sand. My abiding memories of the Fisherman’s Trail are of the soft sand sections rather than the spectacular coastal scenery. Rota Vicentina has a parallel route called the Historical Way.

LTfit · Sep 30, 2024

The Fisherman's Trail is absolutely stunning but as mentioned the first couple of days from Porto Covo are through soft sand which did not present any problems for me either but I remember another forum member saying that he wished he had snow shoes! I don't remember getting sand in my shoes although I wore trail runners without gators.

Yes there is also the Historical Trail, last winter I was in the area and walked one of the stages and repeated two along the coast and the Fisherman's Trail would be my suggestion hands down. The coastline is spectacular, in fact I found it more beautiful and definitely more serene than the Norte.

pjacobi · Sep 30, 2024

trecile said:
I think that he could probably walk up to 10 miles per day without a backpack.

Don't wait until you get to Spain to find out what it feels like after walking 10 miles a day over several days. Everybody is different.

Train at home over many months and slowly work up to your limit. If someone is unable or unwilling to make this commitment at home, then you probably won't have a good time in Spain. Why risk getting injured?

-Paul

trecile · Sep 30, 2024

pjacobi said:
Don't wait until you get to Spain to find out what it feels like after walking 10 miles a day over several days. Everybody is different.

Train at home over many months and slowly work up to your limit. If someone is unable or unwilling to make this commitment at home, then you probably won't have a good time in Spain. Why risk getting injured?

Don't worry, as an experienced peregrina myself, I would make sure that he could walk at least 10 miles a day over different terrain.

Camino Chrissy · Sep 30, 2024

I absolutely loved the Fisherman's Trail, but I echo the words of those who have said that walking in deep sand was difficult. Walking in it for three days straight had me wondering what I had gotten myself into. Poles were suggested, but after the first day they seemed to make walking in 3-4" of sand worse, so I eventually hitched them on my pack.

And yes, my shoes did fill with sand!

The Yukon · Oct 1, 2024

trecile said:
It will probably never happen, but I'd like to convince my husband to do a short supported walk. I'm thinking about walking the Camino from Lisbon next year (again, but this time without injury or illness!), and my husband and I will travel to Europe together before I start my Camino. So I thought that I might be able to convince him to do a short walk in Portugal before I start my Camino.
When we travel he has no problem walking quite a few miles as a tourist, so I think that he could probably walk up to 10 miles per day without a backpack.

So, I'm looking for suggested short stages on the Fisherman's trail that would suit these requirements.

Edited to add: maybe this trail would be too difficult for my husband, so I'm open to other suggestions.

If you enjoy the ocean, the shore, then as jungleboy said, this is a beautiful walk. We wore hiking boots, so the sand did not enter our boots, and although it slowed us down sometimes, the beauty eclipsed the slight inconvenience. That was 10 years ago in February, and we wouldn't hesitate to do it again. We only met 4 other pilgrims. Two Canadians, and a daughter and mother from Germany with whom we enjoyed dinner in Odeceixe after first talking to them in Porto Covo.
The Maris Dunas Residence in Almograve was definitely a highlight. The congenial proprietor served the most delightful seafood dinner complimented with his recommended Alentejo Portuguese red. Moreover, he contacted the powers that be when I entered my credit card pin incorrectly 3 times, and he somehow convinced them that I was a worthy risk.
As mentioned in another entry on this thread, there is a parallel walk that's not far from the coast and it's less sandy - a viable alternative if the sand is too soft.
All in all, this is a beautiful trek (not quite like walking north from Katmandu to the Tibetan border, but well worth the exercise).