Walking Holiday Casa da Lima
We have the flyers from all the PR walks around our house and Ansiao, the place where we live. Finally we start to walk them. I had all the routes digitally also, but for some reason, it is not top of our minds, and we forget about it. They are all around 19 km from 4-6 hours walk. There are 7 walks. They all start form Ansiao, Parque Verde but you can start as close to Casa da Lima. They are all circular walks.
The first route, PR1 Bonfim is a small route in Ansiao of 8,3 km. A nice one to warm up.
PR2 Roman Route
We start our walking trail with PR2. Since it still is August, we start around 6:00 to avoid the heat after 12:00.
PR2 Rota Romana, the Roman Route. Here we start with a larger trails of around 15 km.. Because we start on the trail in Santiago da Guarda, we don’t need to walk to Ansiao starting point and end point so that saves us 3 km. the route is a one where you also walk in the shade of the trees! There is one cafe on the main street where There was coffee and there were a lot of melons. In some local cafes you can buy local produce too, the cafe was full of the melons. With a visit to the Monumento in Santiago da Guarda where they have Roman mosaics, the Rota Romano is a fact! We arrived here before 11:00. Exactly in time for a museum visit and a lunch in Santiago. There are at least three nice restaurants in this village and a local supermarket.
PR3 Rota dos Pinhais
The PR3 Route of the Pine Forests is a 19,2 km circular walk but also this one is less because we start on the circular path and not heading to Ansiao to start and end. We start at Torre de Vale de Todos. Translated this is ‘Tower, in the valley of everyone’. In the times of the war, the valley belonged to no one, or to everyone!
In less than 5 hours you will be finished with this amazing path through the valley of nobody, Trust me they choose the name for a reason. There is nobody here.
The down side is that the path is overgrown with greens and brambles. We couldn’t take the first path out of Torre Vale de Todos. Brambles until above our heads. So we walked via the road and we came back to the path later. At the last part of the walk, we saw a pile of stones, and fallen olive trees. It was really impossible to pass that. Luckily we saw a way out, and suddenly we were on the IC8, were me made a detour. I reported to the municipal, we’ll see if they will maintain it. But if it is like this, and you don’t have Wikiloc, or another app on your phone who knows the route, we advise to take one of the other PR routes.
PR4 Rota das Picotas
PR4 the Route of the ‘water machine wells’ is a climb to Mouro Mountain, a nice viewpoint and another mount Ovelha (sheep) with a mill. It is a 19 km circular route. Calculate 6 hours for this one!
PR5 Rota das Vilas
This PR5 route is the only one not starting in Ansiao. This one goes further out of Ansiao to Avelar. Here are numourous paths, for bikers, runners and walkers. The routes are breathtaking here. It is about 14 km and 4 hours walk. This one crosses PR4 to and passes Ladeia from PR6 route.
PR6 Rota do Vento
Vento means wind. This is the route of the windmills. There are unique windmills here. The start could be in Santiago da Guarda again, we did this, and went to the mill in Melrica first, then the one in Moita Negra, an aluminium mill and in Outeiro you have three old mills of wood, turning on the wheels. In Melrica there is another mill and in Moita Negra. You can imagine the views you have from these wind mills. It will be 5-6 hours walk and 18,6 km. If you like fossils you can also go to the fossil museum, but you need to call upfront because it is such a small museum. If you are walking mindfully and looking to the path where you walk going down from Outreiro (and Granja), you will certainly find fossils. It is a really great route through little villages, and with super view points and nice mills for a lot of pictures. Oh, there is a ATM machine near the parking lot, and surprise, there is a baby mill hidden there. In total we saw seven mills today including the beautiful one of our neigbhour Moinho do Cubo.
If you like fossils you can also go to a fossil museum, but you need to call upfront. It is such a small museum that you need to call to go there. If you are walking mindfully and looking to the path where you walk going down from Outreiro (and Granja), you will certainly find fossils.
PR7 Rota da Ladeia
Our favourite route. Every year in October we do the trail de Ladeia, which is not this route but parts are similar of course. Our house is very close to this route too, so we are biased. This route near Casa da Lima is 19,3 km. You also go up the Ateanha mountain, with a marvelous view, and sitting on the swing in Ladeia is also breathtaking. When you have a nice viewpoint You often see a large swing!
You have great views on the Gemanello and Jerumello too, the Giant hills located around this area. You pass Vale Florido too, here is a restaurant and cafe of ‘our village’.
Casa da Lima is in the middle of these PR routes: The place to stay!
