recommended route
PR1 CVL - Schist Trail of Sobral de São Miguel
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Aldeia de Sobral de São MiguelPhoto: Rafael Romano, Aldeias do Xisto
Author’s recommendation
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Track types
Show elevation profileSafety information
Be careful as it can be warm in the summer and slippery in the winter.Useful Contacts
SOS Emergência: 112
SOS Floresta: 117
GNR do Paúl: (+351) 275 961 116
ADXTUR - Schist Village Network - 275 647 700 | 960 101 873
Tips and hints
Located in the Açor Mountain, the village of Sobral de São Miguel is a very old settlement that extends along a valley, where the Porsim Stream flows. In this village, we can find a large number of schist houses with their slate roofs. The narrow and winding streets, the stairways, the community ovens, the watermills, the old mills, the fountains, the bridges, the main church, the João dos Santos House Museum and the centenarian cork trees are some of the interesting points worth visiting. During the summer you can find refreshment in the river pool. The local activities are farming, grazing of cattle (goats), beekeeping, forestry and schist exploration.This path relief shows typical features of the mountain morphology, with deep valleys and small streams that, in some cases, dry out in the summer. In this area, the schist prevails in the landscape, flecked with quartz prominences. In one of these cliffs there's the Vale das Vacas waterfall, which was recently voted as one of the Natural Wonders of the Covilhã Municipality. A set of lichens, mosses and other hydrophilic plants form a barrier that covers the quartzite rocks in green. The forest is filled with wild pine trees. Among the indigenous species, the chestnut, the Pyrenean oak, the cork oak and the holmoak stand out. The forest has been losing some importance, giving place to the shrub vegetation such as: heather, gorse, broom, arbutus and headsman.
Gastronomy
- Queijo Corno (goat cheese)
- Brulhão (Goat stomach filled with pig meat mixture)
- Versas (beans and cabbage)
- Kid
- Tigelada (Baked custard pudding - eggs, sugar, wheat flour, milk and cinnamon)
- Fritters
- Corn bread
- Guleimas/Picas (a kind of bread with onions, cod, meat or sardines)
- Honey
- Arbutus Berry and honey liquors
Start
Destination
Turn-by-turn directions
1- The first part corresponds to a sharp climb, from the village to the Vergadas' geodetic mark (775 meters), done in all its way along forest paths where it's possible to observe the village under different frameworks and see a few rock art carvings.
2- The second part, with just over 2 km, can be done in a less sharp climb along the ridge of the mountain, which gives a very wide observation field of view. Here it's possible to see the hills that fill the local landscape, standing out the Estrela Mountain. This path finishes in the highest point of the route, where we can see the marks left by the bulls cars, which once went through the Salt Route.
3- The third part is done in sharp climb-down in a deep valley, along which is possible to observe the corrals and the imposing terraces, often built in places of difficult access. Walking in these paths among the chestnuts, pines and thickets, visitors can still see one of the most beautiful spots of this route: the Vale das Vacas waterfall.
4- The last part of the route represents a non sharp climb-down, crossing the shepherds "canada" and walking along the Cabrieira Stream, where we can see the planting fields and its irrigation systems.
Note
Coordinates
Statistics
- 10 Waypoints
- 10 Waypoints
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