Crazy Cyclists and the Seven Hanging Valleys

We’ve settled into the pattern of going to our favorite restaurants over and over again. One we really like is a little Italian place called Restaurant Smiley Food. Isn’t that the weirdest name for an Italian place? We didn’t stop there for weeks because of the name, but one time an Englishman was coming out while we inspected the menu… “Best food in town!” he claimed. We’ve been several times now for two reasons; one the wine is excellent, two the pizza is great and cheap—7 bucks for a loaded combo.

Last week we were eating our pizzas (I had the salmon and capers) when we struck up a conversation with what seemed like a nice, normal couple from Canada. They recommended the Seven Hanging Valleys Walk. That should’ve been my first warning that they were not normal, but we googled it and decided to give it a try.

Then the conversation shifted to what they were doing while in Portugal. They started in Porto and cycled their way to Lisbon… rode bicycles! That’s between 200 and 310 miles (330-500 km) depending on the route you take. They stayed overnight in different towns and sometimes stayed more than one night. When we met them they’d started their second stage of their cycling trip from Sagres to Vila Real de Santo Antonio (west to east across the bottom of Portugal), which will probably take about a week (120 mi /193km).

We decided to go on the Hanging Valley hike from Pria do Marinho to Pria de Vale Centeanes. It’s a one-way 3.5 to 4 mile hike/walk (depending on how lost you get) along the cliffs and down to the seven beaches. We’ve walked along the cliffs like that before, so we felt confident we could handle the terrain. 3 ½ hours was more of a challenge. I mapped it out on my app (incorrectly) and we called an Uber to take us to the starting point.

Sooo, if you decide to do this beautiful walk, go early not at 1:00 pm! It was blazing hot out in the open. Be sure to wear good shoes. Put sunscreen on your nose—at least. Bring water, seriously. We were rationing. There are cafes along the way (we stopped at one) to get a bottle water (or maybe a cold beer).

The trail is marked by posts, but that sounds easier than it is. Often the trail was over a large flat area or along multiple small trails… those signs weren’t always visible. When that happened everyone would randomly disperse like ants over a disturbed trail. 

Some parts of the trail are climbing rocks with fairly good footholds. If you can’t hoist yourself up occasionally by grabbing a tree branch, or a friend’s hand, then this is probably not the walk for you.

They have a pretty little picnic area in the forest to stop and nibble on your beef jerky and peanuts. At one point there’s a bench touted as being the best bench in the Algarve. It’s not. Not by a long shot. It’s just a bench along the trail that looks straight out over the ocean. With all those gorgeous cliff formations to admire, why would they think this was the best?

In my personal opinion, you shouldn’t climb over the fences that surround giant holes in the ground. It made me cringe when I’d see some dare-devil trying to get that perfect photo into the gaping cavern. I must say it was pretty cool to walk past the Benagil Caves after having been on the boat tour last spring. Not as cool as going into the cave, but still pretty neat.

By the way, I recommend researching your Benagil tour-boat first. There’re several types. We chose the one that sat low in the water with seats up front (rigid inflatable boat). This meant we could get into lower hanging caverns and all the way into the Benagil Cave. The bigger, taller boats had to stop outside the entrance.

I digress… we started to feel discouraged after three hours of walking and seeing that we weren’t even close to the finish. I thought we were walking at a decent clip! At three and half hours, with hurting feet and legs, and overheated, we called for an Uber to rescue us. When we got home, we went straight into our cold pool and stood there drinking wine and beer. Thank goodness for that pool.

I was so disappointed that we didn’t make it. We thought we were made of tougher stuff. The next day I was looking at my map app and realized I’d mapped it wrong. We did finish the entire walk! It didn’t change anything except how I felt about it.

So, we made it and our legs felt it the next day. There was no way I was going for my speed walk. This impressed me even more with the people who do the Camino de Santiago. That can take three months not three hours!