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".