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Hiking Magical Sintra, Portugal

Click PLAY or get a glimpse on YouTube.

Sintra is a major tourist destination famed for historic palaces, castles, parks and gardens.

The area includes the Sintra-Cascais Nature Park through which the Sintra Mountains run.

The historic center of the Vila de Sintra is famous for its 19th-century Romanticist architecture which resulted in the classification of the town as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. 

Most popular day hikes start near the National Palace.

A network of steep, rough and/or rocky trails climb up to the medieval Castle of the Moors. Good fun.

From there, you can continue up to the Pena Palace (Portuguese: Palácio da Pena) high on a hill. On a clear day it can be easily seen from Lisbon. 

It’s a national monument, one of the major expressions of 19th-century Romanticism in the world.

The palace is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of the Seven Wonders of Portugal. 

I stood in line for almost an hour to wander the Palace like every other tourist. But wished I’d spent that time — instead — hiking the lovely trails over 200 hectares of surround Pena Park. It’s a labyrinth and I was lost most of the time despite trying to follow a route on AllTrails.

After escaping the Palace, I continued up towards a high crucifix.

There are many weird and unusual places to stop. I particularly liked the Valley of the Lakes.

Another great hike is a short bus ride away on the coast … the Cabo da Roca Lighthouse, the westernmost point of Europe.

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CLOSED Hesquiat Peninsula Trail, Vancouver Island

West Coast Wonders offers a guided fly-in hike over 6-8 days.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

It’s also known as the Escalante Trail as most hikers start at Escalante Point.

Accessing this coastal route requires either a float plane out of Gold River or water taxi from Gold River or Tofino. Or you might be able to kayak.

Hesquiat Peninsula Provincial Park is situated on the west coast of Vancouver Island and occupies most of the eastern shore of Nootka Sound. (MAP) This park is a significant tourism corridor for rugged coastal hiking, boating and sea kayaking. …

This prominent low-elevation peninsula is a significant wilderness area protecting heritage sites, representative old-growth forest stands of Sitka spruce, lodgepole pine, white pine and yellow-cedar and a freshwater lake. The park also encompasses a variety of coastal ecosystems including extensive off-shore reefs, boulder, cobble and sand beaches, sea caves, sheltered bays, kelp beds and mudflats.

This wilderness park has numerous hazards and is in a remote area of the coast. Kayaking and hiking along the shores of the Hesquiat Peninsula is recommended for experienced paddlers and hikers only. This undeveloped wilderness park has no facilities, however backcountry camping is allowed.

If you want to know more, download the Wild Isle brochure.

Trip reports:

Michael Paskevicius (2017)

Wolverine (2004)

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Hiking Westernmost Europe – Cabo da Roca Lighthouse

Trip report by site editor Rick McCharles

Cabo da Roca or Cape Roca forms the westernmost point of the Sintra Mountain Range, of mainland Portugal, of continental Europe, and of the Eurasian landmass.

It’s a popular day trip from the tourist town Sintra and from Lisbon.

Most photographed is Cabo da Roca Lighthouse situated on a promontory that juts out into the ocean.

Many hike both north and south from here. Villages are conveniently connected by bus.

I actually took the bus from Sintra for some late afternoon day hiking. It’s crowded. But a lovely spot.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

The other great hike is away from the Sintra National Palace itself. Up to the Pena Palace.

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Jet Suit Mountain Rescue

We proved you can scale a Lake District Mountain (3100ft Helveylln) in 3mins 30 seconds, despite very poor visibility that would have grounded a HEMS Helicopter.

The Mountain Rescue foot response is over 70 minutes typically.

The route was 1.2 miles and 2200ft of height gain.

This is the latest in a series of Paramedic Response Exercises to prove capability in parallel with training up real Paramedics to provide first response Critical Care in hard to reach geographies.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

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R.I.P. Dervla Murphy

An Adventure Badass I much admired, I was sad to hear Dervla is gone.

Of her many travels, I think I liked best those she did with her daughter. Trekking Peru, for example, in Eight Feet in the Andes, over 1,300 miles high altitude with a mule.

Dervla Murphy (28 November 1931 – 22 May 2022) was an Irish touring cyclist and author of adventure travel books, writing for more than 50 years.

Murphy took a break from travel writing following the birth of her daughter, and then wrote about her travels with Rachel in India, Pakistan, South America, Madagascar and Cameroon.

…. In 2005, she visited Cuba with her daughter and three granddaughters.

Murphy normally travelled alone without luxuries and depending on the hospitality of local people. …

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Gocta Falls, Peru

Gocta (Spanish: Catarata del Gocta) is a perennial waterfall with two drops located in Peru‘s province of Bongara in Amazonas, …

… its existence was not made known to the world until after an expedition made in 2002 by a German, Stefan Ziemendorff, with a group of Peruvian explorers. …

Citing various encyclopedias, reference books, and webpages accessible through Google, Gocta Cataracts are unofficially listed as the world’s fifth-tallest, after adding Ramnefjellsfossen (Norway) and Mongefossen (Norway).

Furthermore, The World Waterfall Database ranks Gocta as the 16th tallest. …

Tourists can now hike the trails by foot or horse to the misty base of the waterfall. The nearby town of Chachapoyas is located at an altitude of 2,235 meters (7,333 feet). 

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.