A walk to the end of the world

WORDS Stephen Powell

“To the chatter of birds in eucalyptus trees, past cacti, rich red earth and bonnie crops of beans, I set out to walk to the end of the world.”

I wrote those words a few years ago to describe the very last day of a 1,500-kilometre journey, travelling the length of Portugal from top right to bottom left on foot. It was the loveliest walk on the entire trip and in February I decided it was about time to retrace the path I took on that final day of the longest hike that I have undertaken.

This time with a companion, Carla Chelo, I repeated the walk to Cape St Vincent on Portugal’s southwestern tip and then on to Sagres. We stayed overnight in Sagres and then took a €15 taxi ride north to Vila do Bispo, so that I could begin in the right spot – Vila do Bispo is where I had heard the boisterous birds in the eucalyptus trees six years earlier, on 14 March 2019.

From Vila do Bispo the route crosses farmland and heads due west towards the sea. Just after leaving the town we heard the tinkling of little bells, saw a flock of sheep and goats in a small wood and exchanged greetings with a shepherd carrying a traditional shepherd’s crook. This encounter struck just the right note somehow. We were seeing rural life in the Algarve slow lane.

For Europeans, this coast was for centuries the end of the known world and happily the Portuguese have saved it from commercial development. From Vila do Bispo to Cape St Vincent is a gentle 14-kilometre hike through unspoilt country, without any great ups and downs. Carla and I took a picnic lunch and I think this is a good strategy for what is a classic day-long outing.

Part of the magic of the walk is that you are on a promontory, with the sea on three sides. When you reach the coast, the path weaves its way along the clifftops through a mosaic of plants – Portugal’s southwest coast has some of the richest biodiversity to be found anywhere in Europe. The flowering plants in springtime are a delight: fragrant and exotic. One common plant here is the Sagres gum rockrose. The different types of gum rockrose are covered with a sticky resin, which is the source of labdanum, used historically in herbal medicine (not to be confused with laudanum, the tincture of opium).

The path, with its sea views, twists and turns, is delightful, but I can’t claim that it is solitary. Others have heard of its charm and some walkers come from afar, but we‘re not talking big crowds.

For bird-watchers, the time to come to this coast is the autumn, when thousands of birds fly by on their way to Africa. The birds include sparrowhawks, honey buzzards, booted eagles, short-toed eagles, griffon vultures and Egyptian vultures. There is even a festival, the Sagres Birdwatching Festival, which describes itself as Portugal’s largest nature event. This year it will take place from 2 to 5 October.

For history buffs, this coast has echoes of naval battles. Over the centuries, a number of engagements have stained the seas off Cape St Vincent. The most celebrated was fought in 1797 between British and Spanish fleets, part of the French Revolutionary Wars. The British defeated a bigger Spanish fleet that included the Santissima Trinidad, the largest warship in the world. The British commander, Sir John Jervis, ordered his ships to sail between two groups of Spanish ships and then engage them separately.

The battle proved important in the rise of the fiercely ambitious Horatio Nelson, commander of the Captain. Nelson, fearing that several Spanish ships would escape unscathed, took his vessel out of the British line and offered himself to attack by seven enemy vessels. Three British ships went to support him. Nelson drew the Captain, bynow visibly disabled by enemy broadsides, alongside the nearest Spanish ship, the San Nicolas. Sword in hand, Nelson led a boarding party and after capture of the San Nicolas, now in flames, used it as a bridge to capture the San José as well. Shortly after the battle, Nelson won promotion to rear admiral.

Today these waters are busy shipping lanes and the lighthouse at Cape St Vincent is one of the most powerful in Europe. From the lighthouse back to Sagres it is about six kilometres along a road. Sagres itself is very much a holiday town, with an attractive harbour, restaurants galore, accommodation and surf hire shops. It also has an old fort, on a dramatic promontory with cliffs on three sides. The fort was attacked by Sir Francis Drake in 1587, the year when he also sailed into Cadiz harbour “to singe the beard” of the king of Spain.

One practical suggestion: do buy the Rota Vicentina SW Portugal walking map, scale 1:55,000. It’s very hard to get wholly lost on this route, but it is quite possible to miss the path that hugs the coast, staying instead on a dirt track wide enough for vehicles. It is much more scenic to follow the coastal path, off to the right of the track if you are walking south. For the whole of this walk, you are within the Southwest Alentejo and Vicentine Coast Natural Park, regarded as one of the best stretches of wild coast in southern Europe.

Stephen Powell is a travel writer and former Reuters correspondent. He has published two books, The First Toast is to Peace, Travels in the South Caucasus and Walking Europe’s Edge, Reflections on Portugal. With a colleague, he is starting travel writing courses at his home near Tavira. The first will run 26 to 30 May.