Vila Nova de Milfontes, Beja, PortugalVILA NOVA DE MILFONTES
Along the Alentejana Coast
- The Atlantic coast stretches for 18 km of untouched sandy beaches along here
- Vila Nova del Milfontes is a resort town (they say the most popular here) along here with some great beaches and they say one of the nicest places on Portugals west coast –
- The town got founded in 1468 by King Joao II and today has a population of 5000
Sun in Vila Nova de Milfontes
As we come closer the sun comes
out – perfect!! We are now at the Alentejo Coast. We went to the real estate
office and no one is there – Gine checks ok so we are a bit early and see there
at 4.30 someone shows up and brings us to our apartment. Which is super big and
beautiful, one downside it has an elevator which doesn’t work because they are
all rentals (What!!!) so let’s carry the suitcase up. And later we discovered
that it is a bit cold inside and we have no clue on how to turn on the heat (as
per our host it turns on automatically – which it didn’t after a complained
text message we then got heat for the rest of our stay)
The beaches of the town
With the nice sunny weather, we
decided to check out the beaches of the town and drive down to the Mira River
for stop #1 where there is a beach on the river with a nice view towards the
ocean, then we stop again so we can see over to the other side of the river and
the Praia das Fumas and back to the bridge and finally end up at the lighthouse
where we have an amazing view on the gigantic waves of the ocean here is the
Praia de Farol – there are some beautiful spots. Let’s hope for some nice
weather tomorrow.
It's a day for beach hopping
When we woke up the grey was
dark and grey and it rained, so we hoped the weather forecast is correct and it
will be later mostly sunny… optimistic we planned a day of beach hopping. And
today we have a fogged up lense: in the last days the camera got so dirty, that
Gine finally took all the lenses apart and cleaned them – we thought they were
dry, but maybe not completely, as they fogged up during the day in the hot
moist weather – so we have a few “blurry” pictures and had to do a lot of
airing out. After a night apart all was well again.
Praia do Malhao
They say it is one of the most
beautiful beaches in Portugal – so let find out ourselves: we park and walk
over and it is gorgeous. Down the steps to the wonderful fine sandy beach, we
walk along the shoreline and come to some super cool stone outcrops, they are
really cool and invite us to climb over them, a bit around the corner we found
more cool spots and as we were heading back, a big wave hits and Paul’s shoes
get splashed even he was on the rock – but then once we had to turn the corner
Gine got wet feet too guess the waves come in fast. And a bit more exploring in
the other directions with more cool stones and waves – as per Paul he could sit
here the whole day and listen and watch the waves and how they crash on the rocks.
We then drove to the very end of
the beach and here you are in a totally different environment: lots of sand
dunes instead of cliffs lead down to the beach – it’s difficult to decide what
is nicer. We may should mention we found the sign super cool telling us to “Show
respect for nudity and natural ethics” – back to nature correct. We did several
more stop along the beach to walk out to a viewpoint or on a boardwalk: and
this is when Paul said we should go over there to the cliffs with the waves:
To the waves along Rota
Vincenta
We drove towards those cliffs
and found a parking spot and discovered that we are starting out on the Rota
Vincenta trail: ok we only did a teeny tiny section of the 180 km long trail
from Sagres to Sines or how they called it in the old days “the Fisherman trail”:
one thing is for sure you see a lot of beautiful cliffs, beaches and ocean
vegetation – as well you walk a lot on sand and stones and I’m not so sure if
we would be good candidates to do a 20km walk a day – there are way to many
spots to stop and look, admire and only enjoy the view.
We went to the first cliff and
the next and the next until we came to the one where the water literally
splashes meters high above the cliff edge: it looks amazing, it is noisy, the
waves are amazing and we can feel the salt on our skin and see it on our
glasses: Gine had to clean the camera several times as the lens got too salty.
Slowly we made our way back with a lot more stops because it is so beautiful
and Paul made that important statement: that nature is so much more interesting
than castles, palaces and mosques.
On the wrong side of the
river: Praia das Fumas
Gine said we check out the beach
on the other side of the river: first we came to the Atlantic side which was
super windy and wavy and we were the only ones – a quick look and we decided to
go on, then we stopped on the river side part, where Paul pointed out that the
sun is on the wrong side and that there are not enough people to watch, so we
went back over the bridge to the other side of the river to the:
Praia da Franquia
Because the beach is on the Mira
river, there are no big waves, Paul checked and said it is still salt water,
from here we can see the waves of the Atlantic, so Paul did what he loves to do
best: sun tanning, relaxing and enjoying and Gine went on:
A walk through the dunes to
Praia do Carreiro da Fazenda
You walk through the sand dunes
on the sand – it’s super cool and then you end up at the Atlantic ocean where
the waves crash in – it is super gorgeous and as you have to walk through all
the sand, there are not that many people around – it is another one of those
amazing beaches. And you can see everywhere the super cool dune plants – I
think I love both the cliffs and the dunes – they are both amazing.
Around Fort St. Clemente
Back with Paul a short break and
then we check out how cold the water is, as well walk along the beach to the
little Castelo, Paul turns around at the dock, as per him that is the end, so
Gine continued on, up in front of the Castelo and on the boardwalk below it
along the river, some gorgeous views and some meeting with some kittys.
- It’s from 1602, even there were forts before that time. Today it’s a hotel – even from the outside it still looks like a castle: at one time it was to defend the coast and the Mira river
Should we watch the sunset?
After such a cool day we needed
a super supper and that means we picked up some Pizza and then Gine had the glorious
idea to watch the sunset, that means we drive to the lighthouse and discover we
are way to early and it is windy and cold, we wait a bit, then a bit more in
the car and decide to head back.
What did we do instead we did
what we do every evening: Gine is writing the diary and downloading pictures,
as well planning the next days adventures and Paul watches a movie. When Paul
asked Gine how the travelblog is going, she said I’m behind because we do too
much. I’m up to date with the diary, but not with the pictures, they still need
to be organized. Our vacation is too exciting!!!
2025-05-22