This is what I have named one of the walks we do on the Portuguese side of the river, although it could also be called the walk of the green arrows, although there are arrows missing in a couple of crutial positions and others painted onto rocks so they are almost camoflaged amongst the foliage which makes them a bit pointless.


A walking we will go

The walk starts at the north of Alcoutim, near the canoe centre and the youth hostel which has a very inviting outdoor pool. We first attempted to do the walk on the 27th April using a photo taken of the walk displayed on the wall of the canoe centre. It claimed to be 8500m long, including a section around the town so should be a bit less then that around the hills.

It was a hot day, however the first part of the walk was flat alongside allotments at the side of the river, the route marked with both green arrows and the red and white stripes of the GR13 route that goes all the way to Cape St. Vincent, 300km away. We passed a hut made with flattened out oil drums, followed by the barking dog/goat farm called Lourinha. Soon after here the path curved away from the river and began to wind up hill past a few harvested cork trees.


Goat and barking dog farm


Oil drum shed

The views spread out up the river and looking back towards Spain the hills, topped with windmills, rolled out to the horizon. On we walked looking for a turn off to the left but all we saw were white and red crosses at every possible turning. At some point we realised we must have missed the turn as we were getting close to 8km already, hadn't seen any green arrows for a while and were still heading away from Alcoutim. A road was spied ahead and a decision made to walk along it back to Alcoutim but before we got there we came across a track to our left and took a chance it went where we wanted; unfortunately it petered out and we ended up doing a spot of fence climbing and climbing down a rocky slope to the road.


A spot of fence climbing (photo by Gilly Holdsworth)

There wasn't much traffic to worry about, but it was hot with mirages forming on the road ahead and not much water left to drink. A little way along the road a path led back into the trees so we decided to try it and began heading down. Then I spotted two green lines painted on a rock! Had we found our way back onto the route we wanted? A bit of debate and looking at the map photo and we decided we were now on the path we wanted but going the wrong direction. About turn, back up the hill to the road (passing a comoflaged green arrow pointng in the direction we were now going), a bit more road and then a green marker to a wide, dusty track that passed the old, ruined castle and back to where we started, nearly 12km walked. There were plenty of green arrows painted on the road here, perhaps they ran out of paint when they got to the critical turn!


One of the elusive green arrows (photo by Gilly Holdsworth)

We were determined to find the right route so Duncan headed off the next day for a run going the opposite way round and found the turning we'd missed as well as a pool of terrapins. A few days later we went back to walk it, reverse direction - up the steep hill by the ruined castle to get the worst of the up out of the way, right onto the road at the end of the track and then off the road on a path into a woody area. Just down there was the pool of terrapins, they were quite shy and must have very good hearing as they all scuttled off to hide in the mud and under a fallen tree. We creeped down to the edge of the pool and waited quietly and soon a terrapin popped it's head out to say hello for a photo opportunity.


Terrapin saying hello

The path wound up a little, then down, then flat, passing green arrows painted on rocks that were quite hard to spot. We then reached the elusive turn and joined back onto the GR13 route to head mostly downhill back to the town. This time we walked 8.8km.


The GR route is marked by white and red stripes (can you see the face?)

Roll on a couple of weeks and time for a revisit of the walk. We tried to be quiet as we approached the terrapin pond but they heard us and scampered away. A shame as one was sat out of the water on the fallen tree but had plopped back in the water by the time I'd got my camera pointing at it.


Frog pond

Around the corner is another pond where we didn't think there was much life but stopped for a look. It was teeming with frogs. Gilly walked to the pond edge and started a cavalcade of hopping as frogs hidden in the surrounding grass leaped for the safety of the pond. They then sat there sunbathing in the shallow pond posing for the camera.


Sunbathing frog