Category Archives: Portugal

Portugal, TravelTuga

Trail in Obidos – Stone Quarry and Cliffs Loops

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Found recently a new Trailing app (alltrails ), which I put to test on a Trail in Obidos, near Caldas da Rainha.

I started the trail at 16:30 in a small village called Zambujeiro. At the beginning it starts on walking path, until a turn right into the hill forest of this location. Inside the forest you can easily follow the provided app gps and route. It works really well, i did not lose myself one time.

So in the begging you are in this wild hill forest, enjoying calm nature and walking almost alone all the time, in the begging phase I did not meet anybody, only upon reaching the beach you will leave the forest and cross a main route, which you will turn after some meter strait again in to the wild cliffs of that area.

You can see a lot of wild birds, wild campers which found a way to enter the cliffs with the transporters. Anyway you can find wild spots also to camp, which i did. I found a nice very cool garden by the see and there i put my tent.

It just nice to camp somewhere wild, hearing  the sound of the waves explode on the cliffs and connect to the elements. That night it was Full moon and very special. I had a good sleep, anyway i really need to find an soft underground cover to take on my trips.

You can check the trail out here on this link:
https://www.alltrails.com/trail/portugal/leiria/stone-quarry-and-cliffs-loop?u=i

Portugal, TravelTuga

Ecopista do Dão

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Got the Visit from my German friend this Summer.
He has a big family, so the logistics are always challenging, never the less we arranged a Bicycle tour with one night camping, just we two of us.

Of we go to the very nice Ecopista do Dão, it is an old deactivated Train track, of course it was updated  and has now a very nice underground for cycling and running. The level gain is minimal and connect Santa Comba Dão with Viseu, along the Dão River, which is one of the most beautiful River i have seen.

There are bathing opportunities on the River and a lot of Shadows and wild Sightseeing spots. The Route from St. Comba Dão to Viseu is 50km long, and slightly but persistent uphill.

We started the Track around 11:30 from the Abeleda Mountain Bike Rental shop, which is exactly the beginning of the Track and arrived in Viseu around 18:30. We did some stops along the route and went always easy on us.

Because we found the best place to camp on an old train station, after provisioning, we cycled back 10 km to that place, where we had a wonderful sunset with hot backed beans, local cheese and some vegetables.

It’ s really great to be out in the nature, this track is worth all the effort and can be done without  roblem all year round. Please note that in Portugal it is forbidden to wild camp, especially in the summer because of the Wild fires. So please be cautious where you stay, we choose the deactivated  train station because of that, the risk to get into a wild fire would be minimal.

Portugal, TravelTuga

Into the Unknown

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Back Home since one week!! Was a long flight trough Abu Dhabi and Madrid, last Stop Lisbon. Strange feeling to be back, all feels a little bit empty.

I don´t know where i will stay or go, and out of nowhere i bought a house in the countryside. All the plans and thoughts you make change in a matter of minutes and now i have something to worry about, construction, bank credit, and so much more… for someone that does not search for commitment this is actually a big step and mostly scary, curios how this new adventure will turn out.

Beside that i was togheter with some close friends which felt good and also went flying, could see the Atlantic Ocean which was actually one thin i missed when i was in Nepal.

Portugal, TravelTuga, Vipassana

Vipassana Journey

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8th of January 2022, i am again in the consultory of a guy in Beja (Portugal) who makes you stop smoking with quantum energy. He puts two metal crocodils on your ears and then with something that seems a pistol he shoots you some electricity into the location of your third eye. Pada, after some minutes you leave the consultory as if you never smoked, true story...its only the habit and social pressure that makes you return.

After being freed from addiction, i left for the north of Portugal. Porto, Viana de Castelo, Moncão, etc…
Being in Monção i received the call from someone, the connection was bad and i was really not understanding the purpose of the call. Finally i remembered that i had inlisted in a Vipassana meditation and was on the waiting list. Are you still interested in coming, you must be here tomorrow before 18:00. Thanks for the call, i will check if i can make it and call you after or send a message.

Checked the train connection and yes it was possible if i would stand up at 5:00 am in the morning. Here we go, by train to Madrid and then Candeleda in total around 1000km.

I had not really searched up on the course and it´s program, so i was going a little bit in inocense without knowing what to expect. I don´t know, i thought it would be nice to meet new people, sing some songs around a fire and that stuff and meditate some hours.

In reallity it is a military grade camp, you stand up at around 4:00 and go to bed at around 22:00. In between you are thougt the meditation technique Vipassana and meditate (sit) around 10 hours.

There is a really good book who explains all the details of a 10 day Vipassana Course https://store.pariyatti.org/the-equanimous-mind in a personal view, higly recomend if you are interested.

So in short, in 10 days they thought you a millenial technique that was discovered by Siddhartha the Buddha, it is not tied to Buddhism as the name Buddha suggests.
It´s a simple technique and thats it, no dogmas or other religious stuff. Of course if you continue the practise it will inevitably lead you to his other teachings and also buddhism in general which has some parallels.

I have been practising Vipassana since then, every single day 2 hours per day at least. For me it has opened a door to a universal truth, which would be quite dificult to ignore or close again, so i continue to walk on the path. I am gratefull to all that lead me to take the course and in 3 days i will repeat a 10 day course in Pokhara to further deepen the technique.