Eastern Way

The beginning of the stage is signposted in the center of the village but, in fact, you can leave from any place as long as you head to the big north roundabout, which distributes the traffic on the national roads to Beja and Serpa.

We pass the roundabout, with the sculpture symbolizing a gateway into the Natural Park of Vale do Guadiana. We take the direction of the Azenha do Guadiana watermill – which you should not miss – and, at the end of the street, we enter the dirt track. Back on the road (first to IC27), after a bifurcation, a secondary road takes us to Corte Gafo de Cima, in a course of almost 10 km on the asphalt sideway. But don’t be discouraged! We follow the secondary road between undulating hills, in a protected area of the Natural Park of Vale do Guadiana, where the almost extinct Iberian lynx is still trying to be preserved. Urban noises fade away and the sounds of nature and rural life predominate. It is impossible not to notice the replacement of the riparian landscape by that of the large cereal steppes. In spring, we are not the only ones to be attracted by the sweet smell of rosemary and cistus. Among holm oaks, cork oaks and many sheep herds, we discover another gold product of the region, the honey.

We continue towards Corte Gafo de Cima, a typical Moorish village of Baixo (Low) Alentejo, where most of the houses are still built in “taipa” (adobe and wood), as shown by the memorial right at the entrance to the village. On the left we can see the Capela de São Bento, from the 16th century. At the request of the inhabitants, the Order of Santiago authorised the construction of this humble chapel in order to avoid the long journey to Mértola.

Before leaving, heat up with a glass of “hidromel” (mead) and try the local sweets, the delicious “costas” or “nogados”. After Corte de Gafe de Cima, we proceed to the Monastery. The landscape “absorbs us”, simultaneously inhospitable and beautiful, and awakens a mixture of emotions that hang between fascination and anxiety… Since we feel so irrelevant, we just want to disconnect…We continue with the taste of a “sea” of hills of continuous fields, painted with magnificent holm-oaks, passing through few “hills” in remote places, to the quiet village of Mosteiro, where we find one of the oldest churches in Portugal, built in the Visigothic period. We have a cup of coffee in the small tavern of the Centro Recreativo (Recreation Centre) and go down to the asphalted road, where we retake the Path in the direction of Amendoeira da Serra. After 2.5 km we arrive at the intersection with the road that took us to Corte Gafo de Cima and ends here. Dona Maria Oriette is already waiting for us at the cafe-restaurant of Centro Recreativo e Cultural de Amendoeira da Serra and we have a bed prepared at the Centro de Acolhimento (Reception Centre).