We start this 7th stage at the campsite of Armação de Pêra. The 7th stage of this trip, but with the stages of the GR5, this is our 100th! A milestone 😃
We've decided to split this 24-kilometre stage into two parts. The weather has become quite turbulent overnight, a lot of rain is forecast for this afternoon and the stone-lined paths can get slippery very quickly. So when we get to Albufeira, we will take the bus back to the campsite, and head back here tomorrow to walk the rest of the trail.
We start the route walking towards the village and the coast. Arriving at the ocean, we turn east again and walk past the fishermen's huts, colourful boats and large fishing tools. A very different picture from the Algarve's touristy coastal towns we've passed in the past few days. We enter the beach and walk as close to the water as possible, as that is where the sand is the hardest, trying not to get our feet wet.
The ocean is rough with high waves and the sky is dark. On the horizon, it's almost impossible to distinguish the water from the sky. We walk down the long beach to where the rocks reach the water again and further on we enter the dunes.
On this stretch, the cliffs and rocks are quite lower than where we have been walking the past few days. So for us, this meabs less climbing between the beaches. However, there is a tangle of paths in this dune landscape and the right path is sometimes hard to find. But fortunately, as long as you keep the sea on the right, you can't get lost. Here and there, the erosion of this soft rock is clearly visible. We pass several sinkholes. In some, the sea water flows underneath us.
Meanwhile, the sky above us has cleared up a bit, but when we look behind us, we see heavy dark clouds. The rain is coming... Fortunately, it's not long to Albufeira. After a quick break, we head a bit off-coast and walk pretty quickly along the harbour into town. It drizzles when we get on the bus. Only a small stretch of about 8 kilometres remains for tomorrow. If these go like today, we'll have an easy one tomorrow.
It rained all night and with our backpacks and a wet tent, we are ready to walk the second part of stage 💯. It's still raining when we get off the bus, but the sky seems to be getting a little brighter. We walk towards the centre of Albufeira and pass Cat Park, a pier overlooking the sea where many friendly cats live. We take a quick look and are immediately greeted by a cat or five. They curiously come closer to check us out and give heads. We give them a pat and continue our route a little later with a smile on our faces. We are walking on a boulevard lifted above the sea and spot an elevator to get to the beach. That will save us a lot of stairs! But too bad, it does come up but the doors won't open. So we zigzag down on foot anyway...
Albufeira is located on a long beach, which we walk all the way down. At the end we can nearly pass some rocks to reach the next beach, but the water keeps rising. One beach further, we're out of luck and have to climb over the rocks. It's quite steep, and some parts of the path are as steep as those in the Alps. Over ladders and along ropes we find our way between the beaches. That takes some getting used to, after walking so many kilometres along the Algarve on good and mostly constructed paths! A few times we are faced with a closed gate, we struggle to get over the rocks or we cannot find a path at all. So we have to go back and forth for kilometres and lose a lot of time. This makes today's stage unexpectedly intense and we arrive at our final destination two hours later than expected. Thank goodness we devided the stage in two, there's no way we would have made it yesterday...
So even after 100 stages, every metre remains a surprise...😊
