September 5 - Our first day on the Fisherman's Trail was wonderful! Blue sky, breeze, and dry air all day. Practically perfect weather.

We spent most of the seven hours that we hiked high on a plateau overlooking the ocean with a couple drops down to the sea to walk on the beach. There were also a couple miles in sparse forest away from the shore.

The trail itself had very little elevation but was tough much of the day. Deep, dry sand, like powdered sugar, made many miles very slow going, especially on the incline. Still, it was sooooo much better than mud in the rain! We traveled 12 miles to the next town South of Porto Covo, called Vila Nova de Milfontes.

We met other hikers from Germany, Australia, and Scotland, but we're the only ones camping so far. We didn't meet anyone at our campground tonight, but it's mostly car campers.

We started after 8am and stopped at a cafe place for a nice toasted ham and cheese sandwich around 10am. We took a short snack break later, but other than that just walked until we reached our destination.

Since the sun is bright and it's pretty warm, we're hoping to start a bit earlier tomorrow. But, that brings up other challenges.

After setting up our tent and taking showers, we wandered around the town looking for groceries and then dinner. Like other hot places, it seems many places shut down in the afternoon here. We did find some snacks for tomorrow, but we had to wait until 7pm for a restaurant to open. So, late dinners make early departures come quickly. We'll see how it goes.

Also, Kelly started feeling similar symptoms to my cold this afternoon. That might mean a miserable few days for her. We'll see.

Check out my current location on the map.