#80 Rain!? What is that?

February 24-26, 2022: Bordeira, Grândola

F. We really wanted to go hiking in the Parque Natural do Sudoeste Alentejano e Costa Vicentina. This park stretches along 80km of the southwest coast and is a nightmare for many free campers, as there is an absolute ban on overnight stays in vehicles. As is often the case with long-distance national parks, there are no clearly marked circular hiking trails here, only one-way hiking trails. The most famous one in this region is the Fisherman's Trail. Burgau, Sagres, and Cabo de São Vicente (#78 & #79) were all located in the aforementioned national park, so we continued a bit further north to Bordeira. From here, one of the few circular hiking trails along the Fisherman's Trail starts, which we wanted to hike the next day. It rained heavily overnight. More rain than we had seen in a very, very long time. Rain? Continuous rain? We hardly know that anymore. In the morning, we discovered that our van had a leaky side window. The cause was quickly found. The previous owner had been a bit sloppy with the adhesion when installing the side window. Nothing worrisome, as it can certainly be sealed with a bit of silicone.

We started our hike in dry weather and with rain jackets in our backpacks. Because there might still be a little cloud above us - I estimated the expected amount to be small, though. We quickly realized that the water from above was not the problem, but rather the water on the ground from last night, as the hiking trail was quite muddy and partially heavily flooded. After 10 minutes, we reached a narrow passage where the puddle was so big that it almost took up the entire width of the trail. Jenny went ahead and balanced along the very narrow edge of the path. It looked very amusing to see her contort herself to avoid getting her feet wet while at the same time avoiding getting caught in the thorns of the blackberries, which she sometimes held onto. I even told her that if she sat down in the puddle now, it would be a short trip. No sooner had I said that than I slipped and knelt in the same spot in the puddle. And when I fell, I also got caught in the thorns with my hands and forearms. Great!

I walked past the puddle through the horse and sheep pasture without getting my feet wet. We continued our hike. After another 10 minutes, it started to drizzle. It didn't matter, as we had our rain jackets with us. Another 10 minutes passed, and drizzle turned into heavy rain. We were soaking wet and once again faced a huge puddle that blocked our entire path. This time, there was no pasture or anything else on the left and right that could get us past this obstacle with dry feet. In short, we decided to turn around and cancel the hike. On the way back, we noticed how quickly the water on the trail can turn into a small stream. Since the area is almost entirely made of rocks, the gravel paths are the first to dissolve during heavy rain. And so the path we had just gone down had quickly turned into a rushing stream.

In Grândola, we found a nice parking spot on a mountain that was not in the national park. The forest on the mountainside was almost entirely made up of cork trees, which all seem to be regularly harvested.

Day 134 - Total Tour 8,745 km

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