For instance, you can watch fishing boats return to a small harbour near Zambujeira do Mar, then see the catch sold at auction, and taste it fresh at a nearby restaurant such as O Sacas, a small, familyrun place just above the port, or I Cervejaria in the town centre. There, a speciality is goose barnacles, difficult to harvest and not so easy to eat, either. In Odemira, it’s worth stopping off to sample Caprino de Odemira cheese, made in small batches by Paula Oudman and Massimo Villa, who sell it at the municipal market. “People make cheese like this wherever there are goats,” says Villa, a former jazz DJ from Milan. “In some ways it’s a very simple thing, but you must be very careful to find good milk. We have three farms around here that supply us exclusively.” At the Quinta do Chocalhinho ranch near Odemira, guests can help the Freitas family to harvest in the organic garden and to care for
For a change of pace, Paulo Rosa of Herdade do Pessegueiro stable takes hikers galloping on the beach.
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the donkeys, horses, potbellied pigs, geese, and chickens – accompanied by their dog and cats.
GRAZING THE GRASS Much of the trail wends through goat, sheep, and cow pastures mingled with montado woodlands of oaks, pines, chestnut, and olive trees. Increasingly, there are also fragrant plantations of eucalyptus, a fast-growing non-native species used for paper manufacturing.