Luís Marques

Hi friends, I’m afraid to change the traditional focus of this blog, but today this isn’t about hiking, today is all about how to be a friend of earth. Once April 22 was the #InternationalEarthDay, and unfortunately, I missed this agenda, in the todays #350WordsWeekly post, I will write a short overview about what are concerning me, the waste, and particularly the plastic waste. When I’m thinking about keep the earth clean, immediately I reminder the three fundamental principles: reuse, reduce and recycle. I will avoid the politician topic and focus on what I can do to reduce my ecological footprint only.  Recycle is a tricky principle if I forget the first two principles. I was focus on recycling in past and when I was thinking I was making all right, probably I was 50% efficient only or less. Don’t understand me wrongly, I’m very concerned about the right place to place the different trash, but some products are lost in the process, some products are only recycling in part and

As mentioned before on this blog , I’m preparing to walk the section Sintra – Cascais of E9 - European Coastal Path / GR11 - Caminho do Atlântico as part of my #E9Project . Today I will share with you some details about the research I did about this section. This path was requalified recently, and the marks on are clear but this requalification was done between Tamariz beach – Magoito beach only, excluding the section Magoito beach – Carvalhal. Even so we didn’t’ found missing marking areas in this last section. About the requalified section, the marks are visible with a high cadence and you will find some old marks not erased. I only will point a concern about this, in Grande beach a part of this sections was change due to problems with the hills. If you pretend to walk this section from north to south, you will note a marking error. You will find a “right way” mark instead a “turn left”, you can check the imagens below to understand better. Probably this error is related t

I All, I’m thinking about why not look inside Portugal and let you know something about what you can find in my own country… If you wish visit us, and walk, you will find two different route types, both certified routes by FCMP . The short distance routes “Pequena Rota [PR]” and the long-distance routes “Grande Rota [ GR ]”. PR are short distance hikes that will take you one day maximum and GR are medium or long-distance hikes, mainly designed to take more than one day but you can find some GR to fulfil in less than the expected if you are an experienced hiker. You can find some three European long-distance paths ( E-paths ) too, but they are usually marked with the GR symbols and in the same pathways. Usually PR are marked in yellow and red, and for GR are used the same symbols but in white and red. You can find some different colors such in “ Rota Vicentina – Fishermen’s Trail” the green and blue ( just because in south of Portugal they need to be different 😊 ). Yo

By the end of April, I will start my first trekking adventure, and for my first journey I chose "The Saint James Way" or in the local language "O/El Camiño de Santiago". Compostela is in Galicia, Spain, and this is one of the most popular hiking ways in Europe. One of the reasons is, you can start your journey in several places and follow many different directions (you can check the image on this post to figure out). Only in Portugal we can find 4 different paths and that's why this hike is mentioned using the plural many times. This is a religious pathway but all of us can do this hike. Catholics will be able to find a special offer like shelters where you can sleep without paying a specific price! But you should be generous, those places depend on your donation. I'm reticent to name those places as hostel because you can find a bed if you arrive soon but if you arrive later maybe you will need to sleep in the floor with your sleeping bag and sleepin

Hi All. I’m searching for an ultra-light backpacking gear and this post will be about what I’m considering using, given my little experience on trekking long-distance paths. Since I was young, I had hiking and camping experiences due to my parents’ fondness for this kind of activities, and later on #Scouting activities. I already went thru the experience of preparing a backpack, but usually for one day activity, and for one single campsite. So, this will be quite a new experience for me. My goal is to prepare a 13kg / 28lb backpack for my first 21 days thru-hike at Kungsleden, Sweden, including three litters of water, three meals and considering the possibility of cold night conditions. This is the first time that I will be packing a tent. It’s very different from what I expected. I can easily get for an acceptable price a two-body tent with 1,6kg / 3lb only. The tent isn’t my major weight problem. Including the usual stuff, like the backpack itself, sleeping bag, sleeping p

Hi All, I’m preparing my first section hike on E9 - European Coastal Path / GR11 - Caminho do Atlântico and my team will share a Geocaching event to someone who wish to join us. The extension of this section is 47km / 29mi and I pretend to trek this route for two days. Considering this, and the Portuguese laws that unallowed wild camping in all the national territory, I used the beach “Praia Grande” as reference to search for a place to sleep. Around this beach you can find two payed campsites, “ Aldeia da Praia ” and “ Quinta dos 7 Nomes ”. We will choose “Aldeia da Praia” since seems closure to the path. The prices and conditions are similar. We are planning to do this trek during 25 & 26 of May and place the event near from our campsite. This event will be schedule before starting our adventure and all of you are invited to join us even if you don’t pretend to join us in the E9. I set this route on Wikiloc ( here ) in case you wish to use as guidance, and hopefully I

Hi All, I’m Luís a Portuguese fan of #Hiking, #Camping and #Geocaching and this is what this post is all about. Usually I’m doing those activities with my team known as Team Pes Rotos . We enjoy creating some events on Geocaching related to the walks we are expecting to do, usually in Portugal, to discuss some ideas before starting. It is a pleasure to motivate others walk the trail but since all of us walk in a different pace, normally we walk apart. I noticed, this is an interesting topic around the trekking fans, and because of this I wold like you can share if do you usually prefer to walk alone or in group? and if I’m not asking too much, your reasons. You can leave your comments on the section below. We’re preparing our next hike, Sintra and Cascais section of E9/GR11, the European Coastal Path. This is only a little bit of this huge route, only 35 kms but full of natural interest, wonderful landscapes, nice technical trail paths, and we hope a nice start to test ou