Dinosaur Tracks & Shell Bay: Nazaré to São Martinho do Porto E-Bike Tour

Fifty kilometres south of Nazaré, the Atlantic carves a shell-shaped bay out of the cliff and tucks the village of São Martinho do Porto inside it. The locals just call it A Concha — the shell. That bay is the turn-around point of this tour, but the route to get there earns its own line: Praia do Salgado and its active dunes, Jurassic dinosaur footprints set into limestone you can stand next to, the limestone ridge of the Serra da Pescaria, and a small fishermen's chapel that may date to the 12th century. A private guided e-bike day with one local guide and your group only.

Leaving Nazaré, south along the coast

The ride leaves Nazaré on the south side, drops past Praia da Nazaré, and climbs onto the road that runs the cliff line above the Atlantic. The first sustained climb is up to the Serra da Pescaria. Gentle on the Orbea Wild eMTB with the Bosch Performance CX motor, less so without it. From the top of the ridge the coast opens out: open ocean to the west, the Alcoa river mouth below, the long curve of Praia do Salgado stretching south toward Serra da Pescaria's lower slopes.

The Serra da Pescaria is older rock than anything else on this coast: Upper Jurassic limestone laid down around 154 million years ago, lifted and tilted when the Atlantic Ocean opened and Pangea split apart. The guide will explain what you are riding over while you ride over it, which is the right way to learn it.

Praia do Salgado and the dunes

On the western edge of the Serra da Pescaria, between the mouth of the Alcoa and the southern limit of Salgado, an active double-dune system runs the length of the beach. Two ridges of sand, an interdune corridor in between, and the kind of low coastal scrub that holds it all together. We stop on the road above it. In late summer the sand is hot enough by mid-morning that the air shimmers. In winter the wind can be loud enough that you raise your voice. This is also one of the local paragliding launch sites. On a clear south-west wind you'll often see canopies overhead, working the dune lift.

Dinosaur tracks and the Capela de Santa Ana

The dinosaur footprints are the kind of thing you walk past unless you know where to look. Two sets of tracks in Late Jurassic limestone, Montejunto and Alcobaça formations, one of them in a near-vertical face because the rock has been tilted on its side over geological time. Around the prints, smaller fossils of bivalves, corals, oncolites and sponges sit in the same stone, the residue of a warm shallow sea. The guide knows the angle and the light to look at them in. We linger here for as long as the group wants.

A little further on, on the high ground above Salir do Porto, the Capela de Santa Ana sits among the pines. The chapel may have been built in the 12th century — old enough that fishermen's families came up to it to say goodbye before voyages and to wait for the boats to come back. It fell into ruin for most of the 20th century and has since been restored. It is a quiet place to stand for a minute before the descent into São Martinho.

A Concha — São Martinho do Porto

The bay opens up below you on the way down: an almost-closed shell of sand and water with a narrow mouth where the Atlantic comes in between the Farol and Sant'Ana hills. The water inside is shockingly calm compared to anything north of here. We stop on the promenade, get coffee, and the group decides what to do with the next hour: swim, lunch on the seafront, walk to the lookout above the bay, or sit. In the 12th century the neighbouring inlet at Alfeizerão was a working maritime port. The sea has since silted it shut. Today São Martinho is the swim stop. The ride back retraces the inland line for variety.

Logistics

Fifty kilometres round trip, about 580m of climbing spread across the day, mostly on quiet roads and well-built bike path. Moderate on the e-bike, comfortable if you have ridden a bike at all in the last year. You and the guide agree the start time when you book. Earlier is usually better in summer, before the afternoon sea breeze comes up the coast. Helmet, gloves, eye protection, water and on-tour maintenance are included. If you want the longer southern version that pushes on to Foz do Arelho and the Óbidos lagoon, the full-day gravel route continues from São Martinho south.