There are still about three months to go, but Ameixial has already started to prepare itself to welcome the many visitors who are expected in another edition of the walking festival, which will take place between the 22nd and 25th of April.
The hiking festival is one of the highlights of the year, in the small mountain village in the municipality of Loulé, as it brings entertainment and, above all, stimulates the local economy.
The 2016 edition of the Festival has several new features, starting with the fact that it lasts one more day than usual, taking advantage of the fact that the 25th of April holiday falls to a Monday, which allowed the Câmara de Loulé and the newly -Created the Querer cooperative, co-organizers of the event, to set up a more intense and diversified program.
As usual, the natural values of Serra do Caldeirão, the setting that frame the many planned hikes, add to the heritage values of that territory, but also the cultural ones. As has been the case since the first edition, the 4th Walking Festival will have an intimate connection with the Southwest Writing, a legacy left by those who inhabited that area around 2500 years ago, which we are now trying to decode.
Whether to discover the messages that have been reaching us for millennia, or to enjoy nature, there are many reasons to make the trip to Ameixial and even stay there for a few days.
Bruno Rodrigues, from the Qrer Cooperative, created under the Querença project, Pedro Barros, coordinator of the Estela Project, who studies Sudoeste Writing, and businessman João Ministro, from ProActiveTur, one of the many entities that are part of the Walking Festival's organizing committee, spoke with the Sul Informação, the event's media partner, to lift the veil on the 2016 edition.
"We have reinforced the entire program and we will have four days full of activities, some of which are new, because we want there to always be new elements, so that people feel like coming back," according to João Minister.
«The base remains the same: many walks, with different motivations, whether for the walk itself, for the contact with nature, health and well-being or for the territory of Ameixial. Then, there are also thematic walks, around bird watching, geology, archeology, botany and photography», revealed the responsible Algarve tourism entrepreneur.
Although some news are being saved for the moment of the official presentation of the event, which will take place in March, it is already possible to lift the veil on part of the planned initiatives. One of them is a partnership with the Jacobeu association, within the scope of the «Caminhos de Santiago».
«We are going to present a proposal for the Caminhos de Santiago do Sul, the section between Salir and Ameixial. On one of the days we will do this walk, which is long, with about 25 kilometers», announced Bruno Rodrigues.
There is also an evolution in terms of accommodation, since, in addition to the space for camping normally available and the campervan park, Glamping tents will be available, where visitors can stay overnight.
Glamping, a new trend in the world of camping, will even have the right to technical journeys. “This is that kind of camping, very natural, where different tents are used, like the Mongolian Yurts and others. There are a number of projects that are using this concept, which we think could be of great interest to the interior of the region and that could give it some dynamic», described João Ministro.
Accommodation, taking into account the ambition of the organizers of this event, will never be too much. «Last year we had about 350 participants and we intend to double it in 2016», he said. Although the fourth edition has only one more day than the third, João Ministro says that the event maintains its growth trend and points out that, in 3, "the only reason why no more people came because on Sunday it rained in torrents".
One of the differentiating elements of this hiking festival is the Escrita do Sudoeste, a cultural heritage common to the interior of the municipality of Loulé and Almodôvar. Pedro Barros has been dedicated to studying this heritage.
«The writing of the Southwest appears about 2500 years ago and is the first writing to appear in the Iberian Peninsula. It's still a mysterious writing, as we can understand some of the elements of the writing, but we still can't translate it», explained the researcher.
«This year, there will be a new path associated with Writing in the Southwest. There will be two walks, with the objective of transporting the Museum to 
the territory. We are going to take people to places where there are traces of this heritage and where these communities used to live. We are going to explain what the landscape and the exploitation of resources would be like, which, to a great extent, still subsist in the Serra”, according to Pedro Barros.
“Issues related to ethnographic, gastronomic and architectural heritage” will also be addressed.
Registration for some of the activities will open soon. Participation is free, but registration is mandatory and can be done through the festival's own website, which "will be operational soon".
According to Bruno Rodrigues, this site will also allow you to make pre-reservations for meals, including breakfast. «At the partner restaurants there will be menus, which also include vegetarian suggestions, which can be selected. But, to ensure that there is room and meal, it is advisable to book in advance», he warned.
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