Caminho do Xisto da Benfeita - Way of the Shale of the Benfeita

Friday was a perfect day for a walk. Not too hot (forecast max 14 degrees celsius) no rain, and clear. We set off from Benfeita, walked uphill for about 3 miles to a small mountain village called Sardal, and then it was mostly downhill past Fraga da Pena (waterfalls and picnic area) through Pardieros (another small mountain village) - stopping for a coffee at a local bar - and then the final leg down through a valley back to Benfeita. The walk is one of the aldeias walks, and is quite well signposted, though a few times we couldn't see the markers and plumped for what we hoped was the right way. Fortunately we were right most of the time. We did have the gpx track provided and used that to confirm our passage using our new gps. We had also calibrated in Google Earth the basic map of this walk (NB: at the time of writing the map is only obtainable at the start of the walk itself - we'd been through Benfeita a few times and took a photo of the map board). One of the real problems we have been having is there are no detailed maps apart from military maps - the price of the maps is not cheap). There are plenty of walks, it seems, but you seem to have to pay for a guide to take you out to know where most of them are. The walk we did yesterday would have cost us 25 euros each, and that didn't include lunch or travelling to the starting point.



The walk is about 10km in total, and takes you through current and abandoned agricultural landscape, past ruined schist villages, countless waterfalls, and woodland. At a leisurely pace, stopping for taking photos and having a snack, it took us about 5 hours. Apart from when we stopped for a coffee, the only people we saw were two Portugese villagers harvesting olives.

It felt such a privilege to be able to wander this area freely. It was like stepping into a secret garden on a mega scale. Almost every turn had another nook, cranny, wonderful view, gushing stream or waterfall. The floor was strewn with many different varieties of mushrooms, fallen chestnuts, walnuts, and fruit. Sometimes the path was vivid red with the fallen medronho berries from the Strawberry Tree.

3 December 2009 - Additional Note: This site has a little more information about the Benfeita walk and some information about Piodao.