A walk taken from the Sintra Guide book - Azoia to Peninha

Last week I decided to retake a favourite walk of mine, which is featured inside the Sintra Guide Book - Lookgofind Discover Sintra.

It was a very bright sunny morning, perfect weather for my walk. Starting on the main 247 road to Sintra at the junction to Azoia I headed in the direction of Sintra and took a right turn signposted Convento da Peninha. The distance of this walk is about 7.3 kilometers and takes in some of the beauty of the Sintra hills with fantastic views of the coastline. As I continued my walk through a of canopy pine trees I saw one of the biggest spider webs ever, with droplets of water sparkling in the sunlight. Most of the begining of this walk is along forest tracks, as I reached some small stones and a small pool I went off the track to climb up through trees and reach the main surfaced road to Peninha. I crossed this road to continue though the forest. I passed the huge impossing boulders which are everywhere on these hills to reach the road and continued to Peninha. What marvelous views from this place, I could see all the way to Lisbon and the 25th of April bridge. As I looked up I saw two Peregrine falcons circling, no doubt looking for their breakfast, which reminded me to stop for a snack. The Convento Peninha is a castellated fort-like building on top of the mountain as you look up from Cabo da Roca. This historical site stands on the ruins of a medieval chapel - Ermida de São Saturnino and the chapel of Nossa Senhora da Pena. There is a great legend about this place:
It is told that, during the reign of king João III, in the land of Almoinhos Velhos, there was a mute sherperdess who used to take her flock to the top of the mountain. One day, one of her sheep ran away leaving the sherpdess desperate to find it. After much searching she saw a lady bringing her lost sheep. The sherperdess thanked her in her own way. The lady took the opportunity to ask the girl for some bread. The sherperdess gestured that it had been a bad year and she was always hungry. The lady gave her the following advice: when you arrive home, call your mother and look for bread. The girl tried to explain that this was impossible since she was sure that there was no bread in the house and was unable to call her mother as she was mute. however the lady was so insistant that the girl decided to do as she said.
Upon her arrival she called for her mother and her voice resounded througout the house. She recounted the story to her mother and hurried to find the bread. And to their surprise they found inside a trunk enough bread to feed the entire village.
The very next day the whole village went up the mountain, to the very spot where the sherperdess met the lady to give thanks. They found a cave with the image of Our lady.
The place became sacred and a chapel known as the Chapel of Our lady of Peninha was built there.

Now there is a pilgrimage every year up to Peninha made by the locals with a young woman traveling by donkey.

After my snack I head down the hill in the direction of the Atlantic, cross the main road along a gravel track to a place we call The Great Valley, to our kids. I admire the view along the fertile valley where you can see the small hotel Convento de São Saturnino, a beautiful restored and converted 12th century monastery.
At last I reached the end, and decide that I deserved a well earned drink in the Bar of Moinho Dom Quixote, a restored windmill. I order a bottle of red and called my wife to join me.
You can find this walk along with 8 others in my Sintra guide book - Lookgofind Discover Sintra.
www.lookgofind.com

A family walk

Sunday morning we woke up to a sunny day. It was time for a family walk from Malveira da Serra to Biscaia.
My wife, my children, who are tewlve and ten and I took two cars, left one at the finish, near the county border between Sintra and Cascais on the N 247 main road near a farm. Then we drove down to Malveira da Serra and left the other car near the church.
We walked in the direction of Sintra along the main road and turned left signed with the official markings PR3 to Biscaia.
The walk took us through the small village of Almoinhas Velhas where a large dog nearly jumped over a gate giving all of us a huge fright. Every home we passed seem to have a barking dog.
We followed the official yellow and red rectangle markings, eventually meeting a single track to go through trees and an array of wild flowers including foxgloves and hottentot figs.
The walk took us through the natural park along the coastline with great views of the Atlantic Ocean , Guincho beach and the fort.
We saw plenty of lizards, flying ducks and fortunately a very flat dead snake on the track. We also passed an old small quarry with very large granite stones, we though they must have used a cart and horses to transport them back up the hill.
We finished the walk in approximately 1 hour and 40 minutes taking our time.
There was enough time left in the morning for a second breakfast down in Colares.
Suggestion: If you do not have the advantage of having two cars you can leave your car in Malveira da Serra, follow the walk all the way to the village of Azoia. (You can walk further along the coast to various beaches - coastal walk GR11, or see the guidebook Lookgofind discover Sintra for more walks).
You can either carry on walking to Cabo da Roca or take lunch at the Bar Moinho Dom Quixote, a restored and extended windmill with a tropical style interior and beautiful landscaped gardens, Sit back, relax, try the Caipirinha and enjoy the view.
Then take the bus (403) back down to Malveira da Serra and your car.

A rambler’s ramble!

Walking in the hills of Sintra, Portugal

Welcome to my walking blog.
My name is Dewi Jones and this is a blog about my walks in Sintra, one of the most beautiful, historic and natural places in Portugal.
I live in Azóia near Cabo da Roca, the most westerly point of mainland Europe - “where the land ends and the sea begins”. I can see the farol lighthouse through my window and soon this spring the cliff tops will be covered with a carpet of colour - the hottentot fig (Carpobrotus chilensis), also known as the highway ice plant. It is a sight worth seeing.
I have already completed several walks, some alone and some with my family, my wife Clare and my children Joshua and India.
My intention is to share these walks with you and hope that this could be of some interest to any of you out there? I will supply some of these walks for you with a detailed map and instructions free. Just send me your Email and I will Email the map back.
The first two walks I will supply will be walk 4. Adraga beach to Praia Grande beach and back, and walk 5. Colares to Azemhas do Mar and back to Colares.
The walk to from Praia da Adraga to Praia Grande and back (walk 4) is about 3.5 km in distance, about a 50 minute walk. I have done this walk several times with my family (a good short walk for kids but be careful on the cliff tops) and there are great views from of the Atlantic Ocean. When you reach the steps that go down to Praia Grande beach look on the side of the cliff and you will notice dinosaur footprints imprinted into the cliff face, made about 120 million years ago by Sauropods dinosaurs.
The walk from colares to Azenha do Mar and back (walk5) is 11.7 km and will take about 2 hours and 50 minutes. You will walk through the pine forest, see some of the oldest grape vines in Europe, visit Azenha do Mar (watermills by the sea) cross over Praia da Maças
(apple beach), up the cliffs towards Praia Grande (big beach) and through the pine trees and apple orchards and back to Colares.

My next blog will be about my walk from the Barragem do Rio da Mula to Pedra Amarela and the legend of the Eggy Boulder!