Day 4 - Carrapateira to Bordeiro to Aljezur

So today would be a wonderful walk filled with lots of different scenery but we would find it exhausting and long.
This stage calls for you to end in Arrifana . I had not pre-booked a place here. I forgot why, but knew there was a reason. I think the limited accommodation was full. I did have an excellent hostel booked for the next leg though in Aljezur. .

Upon studying the map there were two circuits of the Fisherman’s trail to do today. Not having my maps on me at the moment I can’t fully describe the details but they made for a long day. So we thought outside of the box a bit, made reservations for two nights at tomorrow’s hostel and thus today walked past Arrifana and on in to Aljezur .

This wasn’t really two stages because it was almost like walking on the hypotenuse of a triangle. This left us sitting pretty to then actually do the circuit (a circular route) from Aljezur back to Arrifana and return back to our hostel tomorrow.

A common situation...

 

 Our apartment/house that we stayed at last night was located where we got to pass by our dear Alice and Wonderland location and kiss on Gigi one more time.  

Gigi acting like she never knew us, a love ‘em and leave ‘em kinda cat!!!

Then it was up a hill filled with cork trees and lunch in a gorgeous shady spot.
Note: the cork trees in the images. We have been told the cork can be harvested every five years and grow back.

 


 I have a friend who has walked with me twice from Bilbao when I have hiked there and this last time (I think I blogged about this) he proudly sported a small cheese board made just for his backpack. My son, Karsh (who hand makes everything), made me one for Christmas with wood from last year's Christmas tree. It is beautiful, the little handle is from the natural branch. I love it so much, and when we use it it gets so much respect as we place the food on it. 

 

My treasured cutting board from Karsh!!!

 

more nature pics...

We then went on to a cute cafe where we met an awesome couple from Amsterdam and enjoyed small conversations mid day as we met the opposite direction rush.

A halo over my head, our friend, Jordi and I joked there might be a pilgrimage to my old bones one day- lol!!!!
That was a light fixture of sorts, and I took advantage of its shadow.

 
 We got to Aljezur exhausted, but I immediately took off my backpack and headed back out to the supermarket.

 We love our hostel, it’s called Amazigh and the staff, the location, and the crowd is wonderful!