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.