Day 29 to 39 in Porto – Another Beach Walk

July 23, 2019 – We had such a nice beach walk when we walked to Foz we decided to walk to the beach along the Gaia side of the River. We heard the beaches there are beautiful as well. We kind of got a later start and lacked energy, so I made a big egg, toast and coffee breakfast to get us going before heading out.

We had a long slow walk through Gaia along the Douro River. It was a nice flat walk to the beach…There are so many stairs and hills in Gaia and Porto. We walk everywhere…no need to get the car out. It would be a nightmare to find parking if we drove anywhere locally. The walking is very good for our physical fitness but our aging bodies scream at times. Wayne does so well with it but my knees, feet and hips needed a break today. 

There was an Italian festival starting today and continuing on over the weekend.  They were setting up pizza ovens, tents, outside bars and seating area for the festivities. It looked like it was going to be fun, so we made a note to come back hungry from our walk and grab some pizza and a beer.

As we were walking out of Gaia, we came upon an area where the old Porto transport boats were dry docked. As mentioned before, the rabelo boat is a traditional Portuguese wooden cargo boat that was used for centuries to transport people and goods along the Douro River. When we were exploring Gaia upon our arrival, we had seen these dry docked boats, but it looked like a rabelo graveyard. It was nice to see that they were actually working on these boats and renovating them. One of the boats in particular had come a long way in its repair since we were here last.

These boats navigated the turbulent river (at the time no dams existed in Douro, so the river was very treacherous) and were hard to maneuver and thus required experienced sailors – about a dozen of them to ensure that the precious wine reached port safely. A long oar over the stern called an espadela was used to maneuver the boat, by sailors standing up on a wooden structure called apégadas.  From there, it was easier to control the boat as well as to check the water currents and unexpected obstacles.

Going all the way back up the river had it’s challenges as well. The boats were pulled by beasts of burden – haha – or human pullers using towpaths located on the river banks. And in order to prevent the boats from hitting the rocks, sailors would use long wood and iron cane shaped tools called bicheiros. Nowadays, rabelo boats do not challenge the Douro river anymore; instead, they await anxiously in Vila Nova de Gaia for the only day in the year when they can happily navigate the waters – The Festival of St. John.

It was a very peaceful walk along the river from this side. There were no tourists to speak of for the most part and very few people. Every now and then we would come upon a fisherman catching his meal and the view of Porto and Foz from this side was nice. You could see the hustle and bustle going on the other side of the river. We were in no hurry and had no agenda… love it!

At the mouth of the river there is an area of Gaia called Afurada de Cima. There is a very small marina there and an area with many long sticks held up by rocks placed at the base. They were unique clotheslines with different bright colorful clothing, linens and rugs hanging to dry. It was all set up next to what looked like a public restroom. Upon further investigation we realized that this was an old school “laundromat”. Inside the small building was a large square shaped, spring fed washing platform with different sections to separately wash clothes. The spring continuously cycles the clean water in and sends the dirty water out of the center. It was fabulous. Too bad I just did laundry the day before… I think it would be neat to do laundry this way… ONCE… you know how I LOVE to do laundry.

In 2005, the mayor of Vila Nova de Gaia vowed to renovate and clean up the area between Afurada and Cabedelo for its residents. By 2009, The lavanderia was rebuilt, a new park was created, a new church was built, a civic center was built and the acquisition of new fishing support and equipment were completed. Afurada benefitted from the mayor’s promise tremendously. It created new jobs, restaurants and businesses opened and it respected the way of life of the families in this fishing village. The neighborhood is wonderful, non-touristy with traditional houses, streets, restaurants and fishermen’s bars. It was lunchtime and many families with multiple generations were sitting outside of their homes at tables having lunch together. Many were grilling fish right there next to the table. The marina here is small with mostly small privately owned boats, but there were a couple of smaller tour boats. It was very quiet though. There must not be many tourists walking through Afurada, because they all were looking cautiously at us, but a simple smile and “Hola” seemed to break the ice a bit. It was very cool and like a step back in time.

As we strolled along, we came upon Miradoura Reserve Natural, Estario de Douro and Cabedelo do Douro – a nature preserve, a bird estuary and a beach. The nature preserve and estuary looked like any wetland estuary back in SoCal so we walked along the edges of the preserve.

What was cool though, and we wish it was about 1 month later, was the berry bushes that we came upon with millions of unripe berries waiting for the picking… We did come across an occasional-what-looked-to-be-ripe berry and popped it into our mouth but they weren’t quite ripe yet. Wayne loves berries so much…he ate several.

Cabedelo do Douro is a small peninsula with a beautiful long stretch of white sandy beach. It is very serene and would be a great place for a seaside stroll. Apparently, it is very popular with nude sunbathers, but the beach was empty… so Wayne missed out on “boobies on the beach” again.

Beyond Cabadelo do Douro is a rocky Atlantic coastline with large waves crashing on the rocks. There were also very small patches of sandy beach between the rocks. There were coastal plants blooming and it was lovely. There was a bride and groom there taking pictures but really not many other people were out enjoying the beach…Less that 10 people. Then we reached and area called “Dog Stone”… not sure why it was called Dog Stone, but this beach had beautiful huge round and flat boulders that went down to the water. It was really beautiful… and a warm sunny day in July… we couldn’t understand why no one was here.

It was getting later in the afternoon, on a work day… and we were hungry, so we turned around to walk back to Gaia. We had our minds on that Italian festival and if we walked consistently, we could make it back for pizza and an afternoon concert that was supposed to happen at 3 o’clock. When we got back to Gaia, there was a group of women gathering to sing… some of them were very, very old and it was hot… we were hoping they would hold up. They were supposed to start 15 minutes earlier. We checked out the pizzas. They didn’t look so great, were very small and very expensive for a lunch meal, so we passed. Instead, we went to my friendly neighborhood markets and got us some snacks and sat on the riverfront to eat and people watch. I don’t know what happened to the concert…we never heard them sing.

We got back home in time for a very quick siesta, and Wayne got to work. It was a great walk and a beautiful day.