A summery winter day in white Sesimbra

If you want to climb in the winter and would like to feel that you are climbing in the summer, I suggest just going to to the crabs near the fishing town of Sesimbra Velha. This is a pleasant location facing south and southwest. In a sunny winter day it can be hot, but the temperature drops almost instantaneously as soon as the sun sets. It is a good spot to take todlers and children because the bottom has enough space for them to play around and there are no dangerous drops. On Sundays it can be busy with groups of people listening to loud music, which can be annoying. There are several routes graded V but only few graded IV so people who have some climbing experience will enjoy it more. We found out, however, that the grades are not always correct in the portuguese climbing books available, so you can be surprised. From top of the routes we can see far south and the view is excellent. Looking at our notes, I can see that we have been there in the months of December and January, and in fact, I think these are the better months to visit this climbing spot, especially on week days. After the climbing I suggest going for a walk in the evening around the town and have dinner in one of the traditional restaurants located at the back streets. And if one of the big portuguese football teams is playing that night, you will enjoy the environment even better!

Turquoise water at Portinho da Arrabida and Fenda

We took some time until finally decide to visit Fenda, which is a "long fissure of overhung, bomber orange limestone" very popular for its climbing routes. Before Covid-19, it was not possible to take the car anywhere near, although this could be assessed by bus (a good measure by the local council!). Outside summer time, the place is too busy on sundays. We then visitied on a week day, outside the summer season, but still with summer temperatures. The place was empty and we had the rock for ourselves. However, there were not many routes we could climb because most of them are graded 6+ and overhung. There is, however, some very easy routes on the other side of the fissure and also further along. We have gone back on a sunday during winter time and there was lots of people, some with loud annoying music. So, this was a bad choice for sunday climbing. The beauty and uniqueness of the feature, which is inserted in the Arrabida Natural Park impressed me, as well as the colour of the water and of the sand of the beach named "Portinho da Arrabida". Unfortunatley, the amount of litter I found on the trail leading to the climbing area, right at the heart of a nature reserve, also impressed me for the negative. Later on, at home, some related news called my attention: the manager of the restaurant located in the car park was asking for measures to contain the declining of the beach area, this threatening his business, both in terms of infraestructure damage and in terms of decreasing numbers of people that the beach could bear and consequently the decreasing number of people visiting his restaurant. He claimed for a very short-term and expensive coping measure, namely for sand to be artificially injected in the beach so this could increase its capacity in terms of people per m2. It is clear that the impacts of climate change are already noticed at this low level. Individuals feel this in their day to day life, and their businesses are being negatively impacted. Our politicians prefer to hide their heads in the sand, prioritising climate change mitigation measures instead of adaptation measures, and implementing none of them.

 

Blue sea and orange sunset at Guia, Cascais

Since we have decided to start to explore climbing spots in Portugal we have been surprised by the variety, beauty, and uniqueness of some of these spots. In Guia, Cascais, the surprise came from the fact that, from the road next to the sea I never imagined what was going on down there. When I went down the stairs for the first time I found a completly different environment, whith climbers from different nationalities climbing routes with funny names (e.g. Nestum com grelos, Striptease). From that day onwards, we have been back several times, as it is just an hour from my seaside village in Portugal. This climbing spot can be very busy during the weekends, as it is just in the outskirts of Lisbon, and acessible from the city centre on a 30 min train journey. In the week days, and especially if it is a coollish day, it can be very quiet. The cliffs face South, so it is a perfect location for the winter as it catches the sun and it creates a microclimate, with the temperature feeling like 20oC. Sometimes at high tide, the rock can be a bit wet at the bottom and because it is a very popular place, the rock gets polished and it can be very slippery to start with. The sunsets are beautiful and worthwile waiting for. The views from the cliffs include some landmarks South of the Tagus river, such as Espichel cape and also the Arrabida mountain range. 

Escarpas Walkway (Passadiço das Escarpas) in Maceira-Porto Novo, Torres Vedras

In the past few years it has been fashionable to build wooden pathways to attract tourists and to encourage people to walk while observing nature, all over Portugal. These wooden pathways are usually built with a big contribution of European (EU) money, even though, it is not clear where the money to maintain them afterwards, comes from. Is from the council/municipality? Is it from the parish council, which is the lower administrative level in Portugal (third-level administrative subdivision of Portugal)?. Nobody nows. In any case, it comes certainly from the taxpayer. These pathways, built in wood, degrade over the years, and if not maintaned properly can be an hazard to people and can also be a source of carbon dioxide emissions to the atmosphere, during the degradation process. In Maceira-Porto Novo, near Santa Cruz, a wooden pathway of about 1km was launched in 2019 with the objective of offering people the opportunity to observe the calcarious cliffs in the gorge of the river Alcabrichel. In the summer of 2020, I thought this could be a interesting walk to do with my relatives with kids, who visited me in Cambelas. We went and we had fun together, but in the end we thought the wooden pathways do not add anything to the already existing landscape. It is a complete waste of money. It would have been better to use this money to preserve the network of small pathways existing the municipality of Torres Vedras. After this disappointment with the "Passadico das Escarpas" as it is called, we opted to do a much nicer walk around there everytime we go back. We walk up the small hill facing Santa Rita beach, enjoying the nice view over the sea (and the greenhouses!), reach the top of the Valongo hill (about 110m above sea level), go down the hill using the network of existing paths, pass by a traditional windmill and geodesic mark nearby, walk towards Casal de Alem and Casal da Barreirinha, and come down to Vimeiro Spa (Termas do Vimeiro) walking the agricultural tracks. From Vimeiro Spa to Santa Rita, we walk via the pedestrianised gorge along the river Alcabrichel, which unfortunately is not in a good condition, terminating our walk in Santa Rita beach just in time to watch the sun setting. In this way, we truly experience the beautiful cliffs of Maceira, Vimeiro and Porto Novo, not by walking the useless wooden pathways "Passadiços das Escarpas".

White stone in Montejunto Novo

This is Montejunto Novo. We have been here quite a lot over the past 5 years. It is only a 40 minute drive from Cambelas (in the seaside). I see this mountain from my window and it is good to visit it ferquently, and to observe the differences in vegetation colour and in the flowers, along the seasons. This climbing section is very popular. There is usually people who travel from Lisbon and surroundings, and also foreigners travelling and stopping to climb. From Montejunto Novo we can see the sea and even the water tower located only 2 minutes away from my village. There are some easy routes but I find most quite hard as they are overhanging and I do not like to climb on overhanging routes. In a summer's day it is a good place to be because it is quiet and it is not hot. Serra de Montejunto is a protected area since 1999. The vegetation and land patches are unique and sometimes we can hear birds of prey flying over the crag. There is also a series of old windmills that punctuate the rigde on the way up and an old house that possible belonged to the extincted forest extension services. The village at the base of the mountain, Vila Verde de Francos, is very sunny and very autentic.  

Climbing in Azoia - Sesimbra (Cova Mijona)

During the pandemic years, 2020-2021-2022, I took the advantage to travel more in Portugal and to get to known the Portuguese climbing spots. This is Cova Mijona in Azoia, Sesimbra. It is a hidden place, only accessible by a small path in the middle of the vegetation. It leads to these beautiful caves. Even though, the site is not just by the road, it easily accessible for those used to hill walking. It is usually fairly popular among foreign people. We have met there french, italian, spanish people. As the bottom is safe, we have met parents with small children as well. There are easy, intermediate and difficult routes, so this area is suitbale for all types of climbers. It is in the shade in the afternoon, so it is a perfect spot for a hot summer's day.

Women's day in Cambelas

Since 2019, and because I have been spending more time in Portugal since then, I have established a the tradition of celebrating the 8th of March in my house with few women of different generations. My mum and two other women of about her age, and myself and another two women of about my age. The result, apart from the beautiful food that everyone prepares, is the sharing of experiences and the learning from older times that we, the youngest women have not experienced. The older women, lived until they were adults without electricty, running water in the houses, tarmaked roads, public transport, access to secondary schools, during a dictatorship and one of them even without national health system care during pregancy and labour. It is amazing how behind rural Portugal was only 45 years ago, even for a village that is located only 60km away from the capital, Lisbon. The worse deprivation in my opinion was on access to education after primary school, but this is mainly the assessment of someone like myself with a PhD degree since the older women cannot even understand what they were blocked from getting: knowledge about the world, literature, learning of different languages, the ability and confidence to travel on their own. On the other hand, they lived in a time where every little thing was valued, the new clothes premiered in the religious festivities, the balls in neighbouring villages, the walking to the balls at night in groups and via narrow and muddy footpaths, the watching of the first Brazilians soaps in the village cafe as none of them had television at home. They also kept an unique vocabulary only used in Cambelas, which should never be forgotten. These older women are the pillars of ourselves, younger women. Their strength, resilience to hardship and love for their children is what allowed us to become independent women nowadays. I hope to keep this tradition of celebrating the 8th of March for many and healthy years.