A new 3000km circular walking route in Portugal?

[davejsy]

The world's longest circular walking route is launching in this European country

It’ll wind its way through countryside and along the coast

www.timeout.com

I've just read this about this walk currently being developed in Portugal. It will even have it's own passport! I'm guess some of it is going to include some of the existing Camino's?

I guess an attempt to boost the economy akin to how the Camino does and promote slow tourism?

First section to be opened this year.

If it's completed no doubt it will be beautiful but I wonder what the market will be. It's hard seeing it have same lure of the Camino which obviously has it's religious aspects for those seeking it, and also that general a-b format. Either way it will be a wonderful way to see Portugal.

 

[Peterexpatkiwi]

Wow, what a brilliant initiative!
Yes, as you say the camino has the religious aspect for those who seek it, however many who walk the camino do not do so for any religious reason whatsoever. It's not to say that we do not find it spiritual, but any long distance walk can have a spiritual element. In fact, that is often commented upon by people who do through hikes.

I'm not sure how they're going to achieve "always be on public land, exclusively pedestrianised and without Tarmac", (quote from another article on this project) but still keep it as a continuous walk. I guess they might include parts of the GR22 or GR50. Portugal is a wonderful Land with fantastic people, and an initiative that helps spread slow tourism across more regions and time spans is a good thing.

What is going to be extremely interesting is to see the infrastructure. In parts Portugal has good camping facilities for example but with the exception of the aforementioned camino trails and the Rota Vicentina, I'm not aware of too much infrastructure aimed at Walkers.

I look forward to reading more about this in due course

Hopefully some of our Portuguese forum members can enlighten us further!

 

[JCLima]

Hopefully some of our Portuguese forum members can enlighten us further!

Personally, I'm as much in the dark as you are.

I went to their website, read some more articles (in Portuguese) and all I got was that they are doing it slowly. Could not find a map with their plans or anything.

Clearly these articles are meant to promote the part of the trail they plan to open in July and gain more support.

 

[peregrina2000]

Official website still under construction. What a great idea, to have a continuous route that can be picked up at any convenient point. I agree that not many people are likely to walk the full circle, though.

I know that the Portuguese government tourism agencies (at both national and regional levels) are going gung-ho with tourism writ large as well as with walking paths. Surely the Rota Vicentina ranks up there as one of the most instantly popular walking routes in Europe. But this looks like it’s a private initiative, and the website says the headquarters of this operation is Alcobaça. The founder’s name is Ricardo Bernardes.

This is so interesting! Looking forward to learning more about the project, and as others have mentioned, it would be great to see a map!

 

[Friend from Barquinha]

After careful reading of their website, https://palmilharportugal.pt/ , it looks as if what they are doing is putting together an app that joins all the existing trails into a circular trail around a good portion of mainland Portugal.

They state that the trails will be on public land, and are existing ones. Doesn't sound as if they're going to be doing any trailbuilding themselves.

So this will be similar to some of the apps used for the various caminos, I suppose.

Nice idea, though!

 

[Peterexpatkiwi]

Yes, I got a WhatsApp from a Camino friend of mine in Portugal last night, he said much the same. He pointed out that in some of the areas with which he is very familiar that the trails don't necessarily join up. He was curious as to how they would achieve this. Time will tell!