Carrapateira to Sagres

November 8, 2024

Last evening, we walked the short distance to the village square with the intention of eating at the restaurant highly recommended by our host, “so new it’s not on Google yet”. It wasn’t on Google but it was doing well, so well that the place was full! Just our luck that there were two group bookings that night. So we went to the other restaurant on the square.

I had chicken with roasted potatoes and zucchini salad. I can’t remember what Al had but he enjoyed it.

Back at Pensão das Dunas, we each enjoyed a glass of port.

I had a difficult time sleeping in our tiny room. Al always had to get up in the night and I do only sometimes, so I got the side of the bed against the wall. We had the curtain drawn because of the streetlight outside and I woke up hot and claustrophobic. Not as bad as the night I had a windowless room in San Sebastián but still not great.

The place makes up for its failings with friendly staff and an enjoyable breakfast. I had yogurt and granola, both made in-house and both excellent.

We could have taken out breakfast outside but the day hadn’t warmed yet. I took this as Al was loading his bike.

And a bit to the right of the previous shot.

Today there was hardly any wind so we decided to follow EV1 out and around Pontal da Carrapateira before continuing our ride south. We did the loop counterclockwise; it started out flat and then climbed a big dune to overlook Praia de Bordeira.

Al rode a little way toward Praia de Bordeira while a surfer carries her board back to her car.

After the top of the climb, the road surface changed from a patchwork of asphalt to solid dirt. There were several boardwalks leading off to viewing platforms near the edge of the surrounding cliff.

Bike portrait at one of the viewing platforms

Each boardwalk was identified by a big weathering steel letter. They went from A to J.

There was actually a building near J, housing a small café. It was here that the road surface changed back to patched asphalt. Each of the letters has a logo and a simple map showing all of the letter-named viewpoints.

View from viewpoint J. Just to the right of the shot is a small boat ramp that looked restricted to local fishers.

The J boardwalk led out to this point where there seemed to be ruins of building foundations.

From viewpoint J it was a surprisingly busy road back to Carrapateira thanks to it being the access to Praia do Amado. Then we abandoned EV1 to ride N268 to Vila do Bispo. It wasn’t pleasant due to the fast-moving traffic and lack of shoulder, but the next section of EV1 looked rough and joined N268 in a few km anyway.

From Vila do Bispo we took a quieter parallel road to Sagres where we decided to stay. We checked in at Mareta Beach Boutique Bed and Breakfast which, despite the name, is a rather soulless hotel. But the room and breakfast is only 60€ and the room is spacious.

At first, they wanted us to store our bikes in one of those wheel-holder racks just outside the door, which they said would be fine because it was within view of the always-staffed reception desk. But (1) we detest those racks that support bikes with lateral pressure on the spokes, and (2) we know there isn’t always someone at the desk. So we ended up taking the bikes to the related Mareta View Boutique Bed and Breakfast where they had an indoor storage room.

An aside about our room: I was told it was the last available (I seem to get told that a lot.) It’s on the second floor (European second so up two levels) but seems to have a few “accessible” features like very wide doors to the room and ensuite bathroom. Except the bed is very large and prevents the room door from fully opening; the space between the sides of the bed and the walls is quite adequate but doesn’t meet “ accessible” requirements. The closet is the usual half drawers and shelves, half hanging rod we’ve seen in Portuguese hotels but the hanging rod is high and equipped with only 3 mismatched hangers. We asked for a couple more hangers but it seemed a lengthy production so we gave up. The bathroom, through its big wide door, contains an accessible-style sink with a big single-lever control (and a pop-up plug stuck in the down position which luckily leaks). The level-entry shower also contains a big single lever, which is hazardous here as you keep bumping it while showering. There is only one support for the hand-held wand, quite high. There is a grab bar by the very low toilet. Very odd design altogether! The only other room I noticed with an extra-wide door is 102, directly below.

My lunch at a little restaurant across from the hotel. Vegetable-stuffed portobello mushrooms with roasted potatoes and salad. Looks much better than it was as the stuffing was mostly made with frozen mixed veg. Al had a salmon burger.

We had originally planned to ride out to the Fort after lunch but decided to walk instead. It’s not very far.

The wall of the fort is formidable and extends across the promontory from cliff to cliff.

Looking into the fort from atop the wall. Here is the mysterious circle revealed in 2019. Laid out 50 metres in diameter with 48 radial lines, there are unverified stories that this was used in some way by Henry the Navigator to teach something.

The modern building in the background of the photo above contains an interesting display about the history of Portuguese exploration. There are no actual artifacts, just high quality visuals with a little audio of a storm at sea.

The lighthouse out on the point, seen from the landward side. I don’t think it’s operational, though the one on the nearby Cabo de São Vicente is.

The lighthouse with Voz do Mar installation in the background.

We didn’t visit Voz do Mar because we didn’t know what it was. “Some monument”, we thought. But I looked it up just now, to find its name for the caption, and learned that it’s a circular maze built around a vent to a sea cave below and the sounds transmitted are, like the name says, the voice of the sea. Instead, we walked around the northwest side of the cape.

Stacking rocks seems to be a thing here.

The rocky surface is a limestone pavement, apparently.

I suspect this ragtag collection are not the original cannons.

It was cooling off as the sun went down, behind a big bank of clouds offshore so nothing special. We headed back into town as did the several older fellows who had been fishing from the cliff, each on his rickety bike modified to carry his fishing gear. The poles they use are about 5 metres long when assembled. We saw several of them in the parking lot, putting their bikes and fishing stuff into little vans modified to hold everything inside. We never saw the catch.

Later we went out for pizza which was very good.

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Keith ClassenWe never made it to Sagres so thanks for the tour.
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