1. Return towards the main
road with the church on your left. At the main road,
turn right then immediately left along a minor road.
2. Take the first left after
30 metres, along a gravel track.
3. Follow this track for one
kilometre. (20 minutes) through olive and fig orchards,
ignoring any tracks to the left and right.
On the bank
on the left hand side of the track, look out for the
holes made by a colony of bee eaters (these are
sometimes filled in with stones, perhaps by farmers
worried about the affect of bee eaters on the bees and
their crops?)
4. You will reach the village
of Curvaceiros Grandes. Follow the road into village.
Following it as it turns left by a house with yellow
ducks decorating its wall.
Note the
decoration on the wall opposite this house, obviously in
competition with the duck embellishments
5. After about 50 metres take
the right fork through a small square with benches.
Continue right along Rua de 1 de Maio past the Café
Paraíso.
This is a
typical little Portuguese community and is worth
delaying a few moments to explore the village.
6. You will pass a number of
untidy village houses before meeting a main road after
about 300 metres. Turn left then immediately right.
7. Follow this road, passing a
dilapidated car repair workshop on the right, for
another 300 metres until you reach a T-junction where
you turn left.
8. Follow this track (which
becomes a tarmac road) to the village of Carvalho about
1.2 kilometres. (25 minutes), where you carry straight
on ignoring the road joining on the left.
9. Almost immediately you
reach a crossroads with a sign saying Delongo. Go
straight over along Rua da Escola Nova.
Sadly, the
“new school” is now abandoned, presumably due to the
migration away from such rural areas.
10. Follow this road for about
600 metres to another crossroads. Again go straight
across until you meet a junction of roads after about
100 metres. Follow the gravel track keeping a pink
house, number 32, to your right.
11. Follow this track for
about one kilometre (20 minutes) until you reach a
junction.
It is worth
turning right here for a detour to see the old mill
(Moinho do Jose Estevão) about 100 metres away. It is a
shame that the mill has been left to decay and is
surrounded by debris including old tyres. It is open and
worth looking inside although it seems to have been used
as a tramps’ refuge.
12. Return to the junction and
turn right (or carry straight on if you do not visit the
mill), entering the village of Vila Nova (although the
village names are confusing at this point). At the
T-junction, turn right following the one way sign and
follow the road round to the left to meet another
junction. Here, turn left, then right to reach the train
station
At the
T-junction you will see an old house (more of a ruin)
with sheets of plastic for the roof. Surprisingly this
shack is still inhabited. A strange contrast to the many
grand villas on the route.
It was also
in this village that we met an old lady sitting in the
doorway of her ramshackle old house sewing old clothes
together. Our questions about what she was making were
just met with a toothless, but happy, smile.
13. Climb the few steps onto
the station and turn left, walking along the station
until its end (about 50 metres). Cross the line and turn
left keeping the line on your left, along Rua 25 de
Abril. Follow this road which runs between two railway
lines to its end (about 800 metres).
Here, you
can make fools of yourselves by waving at the trains as
they pass. I did.
14. At the end of the road,
re-cross the railway lines and take the footpath
immediately opposite, ignoring the road which runs left
and right.
15. Follow this track, keeping
right at the first junction and left at the second, to
the village of Carrascal. As you reach the village, turn
left and cross the road to the church, about 100 metres.
If you climb
the steps to the church, there are three benches, ideal
to take a well deserved rest. The church cross is very
interesting: dated 1747, it has carvings of tools
including a hammer, pincers and what looks like tongs.
Possibly recognising a blacksmith in the parish? It also
has impressive carved skull and crossbones.
16. Returning to the road,
take the track to the right of the church alongside the
cemetery to your left and, after about 100 metres, turn
right along a small road with a row of little cottages
on the left.
17. Follow this track ignoring
any turnings to either side for about 1.5 kilometres (30
minutes) to the village of Bexiga.
It was here
that saw a kestrel hovering over the olive orchards,
before disturbing a beautiful black-shouldered kite
which flapped lazily away across the fields.
18. As you reach the village,
turn right then, after 100 metres, left along a track.
Follow the track passing an impressively restored
windmill on the left.
The views
from the windmill towards your walking route are
magnificent.
