We start today on the edge of Parque Natural da Ria Formosa. This is a large wetland consisting of numerous canals, marshes, islets and sandbanks. A beautiful area, especially because of the many bird species that live and winter here. It also forms a large natural barrier against the often turbulent ocean for the Algarve's capital, Faro, located inland. This area is connected to the ocean in six places. This prevents us from walking further along the beach and we start walking straight inland from the campsite. The downside to this is that there are not many paths and we have to go around Faro airport, so we'll hike on lots of asphalt today. We walk from Ponte de Baixo across a long bridge and get nice views over the swampy inlands. We also see many plane landing, one after another. It must be pretty busy at the airport, as we count at least 7 planes within 45 minutes! It starts to rain, so we put on our jackets and rain covers for our backpacks. A little later, we walk past the departure hall of the airport. Strange to walk here without flying away. After crossing the large car parks, we leave the complexes again and walk along a dirt road towards Faro. It isn't long before we are on a wide road to the city centre.
It is Sunday morning, but still pretty busy. Even in Portugal, most shops are open as usual on Sundays. The suburbs are quite grey and drab, but Faro's old centre is pretty and authentic. We leave the port and walk through an old Moorish gateway to the old centre. Beautiful buildings, cobbled streets and a gorgeous square with orange trees against the white houses. What a southern sight!
Unfortunately, this is the last authentic stretch we pass today. The second half of our route passes industrial estates, ports and larger roads without pavements. On the N-roads, we need to be careful with the speeding traffic. Luckily there aren't many trucks on the road on Sundays and the walking goes smooth and quickly. When we approach Olhão, we can finally leave the main road and immediately are reminded how beautiful the Algarve is. It is a dirt road along the edge of the nature reserve with some shellfish and mollusc farms. Along the water, we see many birds and a large group of flamingos. We walk along the village quay. The campsite isn't far anymore, and after some last quick kilometers on asphalt, we arrive nicely on time.
It wasn't the most inspiring stage, but nevertheless we saw a lot of beautiful things.
