Ameixial (2 km off)

How long to stay?

An afternoon is enough, and you'll need it. Ameixial isn't a place to tick off, it's a village to arrive in after the long climb from Salir. The time fills up with laundry, water and planning, because tomorrow gets lonely. If you still have legs, look for the spring at the Fonte da Seiceira. A rest day isn't really worth it here; take it in Almodôvar instead.

Ameixial in Ninja numbers

• 415 metres: According to Camino Ninja, the highest point of the whole route from Faro to the Ribatejo is at km 65.7, here in the serra near Ameixial. From now on it's, roughly speaking, downhill towards the plains.
• 65.7 km since Faro, 387.1 km still to go to Benfica do Ribatejo (according to Camino Ninja). You've covered barely a seventh of the route, but the steepest part.
• 3.5 people per square kilometre: In 2011 the whole parish of Ameixial had 439 inhabitants, spread over almost 124 square kilometres. Up here, everyone has room.
• 472 mm of rain fall here each year, almost all of it between October and March. July and August, by contrast, are practically dry, with daytime highs around 32°C (climate average 1941–1991).

Arriving: the last climb of the Algarve

Beyond Salir, the Caminho Português Central do Sul leaves the hill country and climbs through Alganduro and Sarnadinha into the slate mountains of the Serra do Caldeirão. Via Portela, Ximeno, Medronheira and Azinhal dos Mouros you reach Ameixial after 22.6 km. Since Faro and Loulé, this is the day the Algarve stops looking like a coast.

Ameixial is the last village of the Algarve on this route. That is why the official guide to the Caminhos de Santiago in the Alentejo and Ribatejo starts its first stage right here: from Ameixial you go down to the Vascão, and on the other side lies the Alentejo. Since 2016, volunteers of the Associação Espaço Jacobeus have marked the way up from Faro with yellow arrows; by March 2017 it was finished as far as Almodôvar.

In brief: a passage between two landscapes

The area around Ameixial has always been a land of passage. The guide describes it as a strategic region, a "lugar de passagem entre o Algarve e o Alentejo" (a place of passage between the Algarve and the Alentejo). In the opposite direction, in the 13th century, the Grand Master of the Order of Santiago, Paio Peres Correia, and his knights rode through here into the Algarve to conquer it for King Afonso III. So you are walking their route backwards. In the 19th century, after the civil war, these hills were the last bastion of the Miguelite guerrillas under the feared Remexido.

The traces in the earth are much older: the Antas do Beringel and da Pedra do Alagar are megalithic tombs about 7,000 years old, and at sites in the parish stelae came to light in the Escrita do Sudoeste, a script from the Iron Age, about 2,500 years old and still undeciphered.

Water and stone: what to see

Ameixial has no great monuments, but it has two things that are just right after a day in the serra. We found no opening times for either of them.

• Fonte da Seiceira: A historic spring near the village, which the residents themselves chose as their most important project. Since May 2016 there has been a water mirror there of almost 100 square metres, fed by the spring, with lawn, changing rooms, barbecue spots, picnic tables and a small bar with a terrace. Entry is free. For pilgrims after the climb from Salir: feet in the water, you need nothing more. In summer, though, whole coachloads come from the Algarve. We couldn't find out reliably how far the spring is from the village centre; ask at the albergue.
• Antas do Beringel and da Pedra do Alagar: Since 2021 the Câmara Municipal de Loulé has been upgrading the two megalithic tombs with excavations, restoration and signage, together with the sites of the Escrita do Sudoeste. We couldn't establish whether and how you can visit them today. You'll meet the script of the stelae again in Almodôvar, in the museum.

Honestly

• The albergue is poorly documented. The Junta de Freguesia runs an accommodation where pilgrims sleep, but our most reliable report dates from 2017. Phone the Junta beforehand rather than turning up on spec.
• Tomorrow gets lonely. It is 35.3 km to Almodôvar. According to the official guide, there is no shop in Santa Cruz, the first village in the Alentejo, and on the section after it there are only two chances to get water or food.
• In summer the serra is no walk in the park. With highs around 32°C and plenty of ups and downs, in July and August you're better off setting out in the dark.
• In winter the Vascão can cause trouble. In 2017 the volunteers specially marked detours for high-water periods. After heavy rain, watch for the alternative arrows.

Where pilgrims sleep

Ameixial has a simple albergue run by the Junta de Freguesia do Ameixial. The volunteers who marked the route in 2017 slept there and explicitly praised the facilities; the Junta was among the supporters of the route at the time. We found no reliable name, price or phone number, and the albergue is not yet entered in the Camino Ninja database (as of November 2026). So get in touch with the Junta de Freguesia beforehand, ideally from Salir.

For the hiking festival in April 2026, the 13th edition of perhaps the oldest hiking festival in the Algarve, there were also glamping tents in the village. Whether that is a permanent offer, we don't know.

Ninja tips

• Split tomorrow in Santa Cruz. After 15.3 km you reach Santa Cruz. According to the guide (as of 2021), the Junta de Freguesia there arranges beds in its social facilities, by registration only (+351 963 713 025 or +351 286 453 119, 8:30–16:30). If you'd rather have two short days than one long one, call tonight.
• Pre-order food in Santa Cruz. There is no shop there. According to the guide, the café A Colmeia do Vicente cooks if you let them know beforehand.
• Water for the whole day. Between Santa Cruz and Almodôvar there is something only in Monte João Dias and in Guedelhas; in Monte Branco you can refill at public fountains. Pack what you need for the whole day.
• Shop in Salir. We couldn't reliably find out whether and when there is a shop in Ameixial. If you buy in Salir for the evening, breakfast and the long day after, you're on the safe side.

Onward: down to the Vascão

Beyond Ameixial the route leads via Revezes (6.3 km) down into the valley of the Vascão, a tributary of the Guadiana. The valley is considered rich in species and cool even in summer, with hidden pebble beaches for a rest. At the Vascão you leave the Algarve and enter the Alentejo. Santa Cruz, with its Manueline church of the Order of Santiago, is 15.3 km away, Almodôvar 35.3 km.

What awaits you tomorrow

Almodôvar, the first small town in the Alentejo. The official guide promises that it appears behind the last rise "como um oásis branco, resplandecente", like a white, shining oasis. There you'll find a museum for the oldest script of the Iberian Peninsula, the same script whose stones were found here in the serra. And, as the guide writes, at last everything you need on the road again.

Deep dive: The pass between two worlds

A short read, in case you want to learn more about Ameixial. About two minutes' reading.

A village on the crest

When you stand in Ameixial, you have reached the highest point of your route. Behind you lies the Algarve with its coast, which you left in Faro. Ahead, the land falls away to the Vascão, and beyond it the Alentejo begins. Ameixial is a parish of almost one hundred and twenty-four square kilometres and, when last counted, in 2011, just four hundred and thirty-nine inhabitants. It is one of the quietest villages this route takes you through.

Script in slate

People were here long before you. The two megalithic tombs of Beringel and of the Pedra do Alagar are about seven thousand years old. Much younger, but still mysterious, are the stelae found in the parish. They bear signs of the so-called Script of the Southwest, created in the Iron Age about two thousand five hundred years ago. To this day nobody can read them. A few days further on, in Almodôvar, a whole museum is devoted to these stones.

Knights in the opposite direction

In the thirteenth century the knights of the Order of Santiago rode south through these mountains with their Grand Master Paio Peres Correia, to conquer the Algarve for King Afonso the Third. The pilgrim route you are walking follows their march in reverse, from south to north. Six centuries later the hills became a refuge once more: after the civil war in the nineteenth century, the last guerrilla fighters of the Miguelites under the feared Remexido held out here. The guide says that their violence drove people out of the area.

What Ameixial gives you

Today the village is trying to attract again those it once lost. In 2014 the residents themselves chose what mattered most to them, and so a water basin came into being at the old spring of Seiceira. In the former cork factory a start-up centre has been at work since 2024, and around the village cork oaks, holm oaks and strawberry trees have been replanted. Since 2016 pilgrims have come too, guided by volunteers who climbed these mountains in rain and wind. What Ameixial gives you is perhaps exactly this: an evening on the crest, knowing that the hardest climb is behind you and the open expanse still lies ahead.