Crossing the bridge over the river in Vila Nova de Milfontes provides stunning views of the river’s mouth, the small town beside it and the natural vegetation that covers the local hillsides. This vegetation is important as it attracts many different species of birds and small mammals. At low tide, enjoy the view of the marshes on the river bends, partially submerged and covered with reeds, important in their own way also as breeding grounds for several species of fish. Between March and October you’ll be able to see many swifts as alpine, pallid and common swift all nest along this coast. Their breeding season starts as soon as they arrive and their acrobatics as they constantly search for enough food for their chicks is one of the wonders of the area. They spend over 90% of their life on the wing and have extreme difficulty in becoming airborne should they land anywhere but on a cliff or high building.

There are stretches along this part of the coast where native vegetation displays all its diversity and other areas where it has been destroyed and wiped out by a most aggressive exotic plant – the Acacia. This invasive plant is quite capable of reducing the sand dunes’ biodiversity almost to zero. At times intensive farming stretches right down to the ocean, but you can also enjoy other less invasive traces of human presence such as local, non-commercial, fishing or small Stone-Age quarries amongst the dunes, a reminder that man has been shaping this coastline since time immemorial.

Along this stretch of coast it is interesting to take a close look at the cliffs; note how the sedimentary rocks that were laid down horizontally over aeons have been folded and pushed out of all recognition so that what was once horizontal is now in some cases vertical. Now imagine the forces necessary! More recently was the formation of lithified sand tubes which can be seen a bit all over the trail.

On this section you will also find abundant signs of the presence of mammals, especially carnivores living among the dunes. It is hard to spot the animals themselves given that for the most part they are nocturnal, remaining in their burrows during daylight and only coming out to hunt at dark. But you will come across their droppings, footprints, burrows or maybe even the remains of their night’s hunting. These carnivorous mammals include Egyptian mongoose (locally known as  escalabardo), weasel, beech marten (also known as papalvo ), badger, genet and otter. Rabbits are other mammals that build their burrows in the most stable of the sand dunes. These rabbits are the original stock of all rabbits worldwide, and incredibly important here, being the preferred prey of most carnivores.