Roncão - Grândola

We escape the national road N120, looking for a passage on the right under the motorway IC33, on a side street that will take us to the village of Cruz de João Mendes. We pass through the center of the village and look for the exit through the wide macadam road of Rua da Eira, which follows the unfinished work of a motorway. We leave this road 2.5 km later, turning left into an abandoned concrete tunnel, seeping into the heart of the Grândola mountain range.

We walk isolated in the middle of nature, between the vegetation that thickens and where the cork oak dominates, although the true genocide that is reaching this emblematic tree becomes evident. With redoubled attention to signage, so that we don't get lost, we end up on a hill that, further ahead, where it crosses the road, is identified by a sign as Corte Esporão. We continue to the left, on the road, until we find the N120 road, which "picks us up" again there. Several signs indicate the directions of the pedestrian routes and the GR11-E9, but it is the workshop of the locksmith Frank Peters, right in front, that attracts our attention. With our backpack heavier with some iron items, we re-enter the N120 for a few moments until entering the village of Santa Maria da Serra. We look for lunch and, to digest, we visit the village, starting with the House Museum Manuel Chainho. Then, the church of Santa Margarida da Serra renovated in the 20th century but already described as badly damaged and in such a way that no mass should be said in it in 1513. Next to the church, we climb the viewpoint staircase, which offers us a magnificent view of the village and the mountains. Next to the coffee shop Triunfo, we follow the road that gives access to several farms and rural tourism at km 2. But it is another kilometer ahead, right in front of an inhabited hill, that we must pay attention to curve to the right, descending an inclined path, with poor condition, through dense vegetation, that accompanies the valley formed by the water line.

We are once again immersed in the bucolic scenery of Grândola mountain range and, after many curves and counter-curves, we arrive at the Sanctuary of Nossa Senhora da Penha de França, at the top of an elevation. We reject the road leading there and we go down the trail on the left, which leads us to the valley of Grândola stream, which we follow until the N120 blocks our passage. We climb the pedestrian aerial passage to overcome the IC1 and enter in Grândola, first by Rua das Pontes and then by Rua Vasco da Gama, until the square where the Tourism Office is located.