Today’s stage, albeit a bit long, was relatively straightforward. Most of it was pretty much a walk in the park (literally true, because Rota Vicentina is part of the Vicentina National Park ;)). I trotted out of Vila do Bispo at around 08:30 after my little Lidl breakfast. The first half of the walk, from Vila do Bispo to Cabo de St. Vicente, was mostly through the plains. This would have been boring if I did it in the afternoon (especially a hot one) because there were absolutely no shades to hide under. But because I did it in the morning, it was absolutely magical. The air was cool and the mist was covering the hills of Vila do Bispo, and I could just walk and walk and walk without having to worry about the cliff edges and making the wrong step.
One thing that I realized quite late into the hike was that long-distance hikes are the perfect opportunity to listen to your favorite albums in full, without interruption, and I could even add some karaoke into the mix too because no one would hear my false notes and voice cracks and awful singing. This time I listened to some Phoenix, starting with Bankrupt!, then Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix, then I moved on to Taylor Swift and found myself singing along Cruel Summer. It was glorious.
Because the terrain was almost entirely flat, fifteen minutes into my walk, I could already see Cabo St. Vicente at a far distance. It was a bit disorienting to see a sign that says it’s still 10 km away, when I could literally see it with my naked eyes, and normally this would have sent me into a panic mode (“how come it’s still 10 km away!?”) but this time, I was glad that I still had 10 km to go, because I didn’t want this hike to end.
But of course everything must come to an end. As I got closer to Cabo de St. Vicente, there were some descents and ascents that I had to make, but nothing too exhausting. The worst part, for me, was pretty much this:
I was glad to not encounter much sand—Sofia said there would be less and less sand and as we moved further south and she was right—but it didn’t take long until I found my new enemy: rocks. A sea of big ass rocks.
I maintained a good walking place throughout, but slowed down considerably when I came across all these rocks. I didn’t know what to do with them. Should I walk in between the gaps? That’s what I tried to do at first, but it was impossible. The rocks were EVERYWHERE. And it wasn’t until I saw other hikers who confidently just walked on them, that made me realize that well, maybe I should just try walking on them. And it worked, but I could feel the tension especially on my right foot, and it wasn’t the most comfortable thing in the world but at least I could get it over with quickly.
At first I thought I’d spend some time at the lighthouse to sketch, but I quickly shelved those thoughts as soon as I saw a line of cars being parked on the street that leads to the most southwestern point of Europe. It was getting hotter, too, and instead of the lighthouse, getting something to eat would be my priority.
When Eric and Claus talked about the bratwurst over dinner last night, I remember thinking: why would I walk all the way to the southwesternmost point of Europe just to eat a bratwurst? I swore to myself I’d find something else to eat, most likely something authentic to the local area, something Portuguese. But yet again another disappointment: the food trucks there were either selling burgers or bratwurst…
Well, I decided to go with the latter. I was lining up for the bratwurst when I turned to my right and I saw a familiar figure walking towards me: Claus. How come!?
He waved his walking pole, and shouted, “look who I found here!” I laughed so hard at disbelief. I really thought we were going to miss each other today, despite what he said last night about us meeting at the bratwurst place: I started early because I didn’t order the hotel breakfast, and he had ordered his hotel breakfast which would only start at 8. I haven’t seen him today on the trail at all, and I wasn’t even planning to get the bratwurst and yet here he is, here I am, and here we are.
He got himself a bratwurst too, and explained to me that this looks like a Thuringen kind of bratwurst. “I want to take a picture of you,” he said, and he took my phone and told me to stand in front of the food truck. Now there exists a photo of me, standing in front of the food truck of the last bratwurst of America, but it will never see the light of day because I look awful and messy.
I wanted to continue walking alone, so I told him I’d continue my walk to Sagres. He decided to check out the lighthouse instead, which I wanted to do at first but honestly I really just couldn’t deal with the crowd. After Cabo de St. Vicente, the trail turned to the east, and this part of the hike was pretty much a slog since I was walking along the vehicle track, so there was none of the remoteness that I was craving for, but alas. I made it to Sagres after a few breaks here and there.
In Sagres I stayed at a bunk room in a small surfing hostel. Despite it being a surfing hostel, it was one of the calmest hostels I’ve stayed in, probably because there were only two rooms with a bunk bed each. I shared the room with Paula and two other women I have never met on the trail before; one is a woman from Hamburg used to live in New Zealand, who walked the opposite direction. She was quite chatty and it made the afternoon pass by really quickly; we talked about her experience being a product designer, the lessons we learned from doing these hikes, and she gave me a nice tip about watching out for dolphins on the way to Salema. We talked so much that I ended up missing Claus’ message, asking me if I want to grab dinner in town, but I still managed to catch him at one of the seafood restaurants by the coast. We talked about the Internet and pocket PC, and more traveling conversations. He would be staying for two nights in Salema, and so unless another camino magic happens, this would be the last time we see each other until we get back to Germany and hopefully meet again another time.
