Earlier this year I was in Portugal, hiking on the Rota Vicentina or the Fishermen’s Trail. It’s a great coastal hike with beautiful towns, stunning cliffs and amazing beaches, but it is also an area of special interest for us map-makers. Fraught and problematic as the following era of European colonization and exploitation is, there is no denying that one of its starting points was here in Portugal where sailors and explorers set off to go beyond the edges of the maps – and hopefully get rich and famous in the process.

The Fisherman’s Trail starts just a bit south of the town of Sines. It’s not a big tourist destination and more important as an oil terminal nowawadays, but it is also the birthplace of Vasco da Gama, the first European to reach India via the sea route around Africa. His statue overlooks the bay and harbour of Sines today.

I stopped in Sines on my way back to Lisbon after the hike and took the opportunity to visit the excellent little local museum in Sines’s castle.

While pondering the history of the town and the voyages of its most famous resident, it occurred to me that this kind of exploration – finding new routes to important destinations – is one that lends itself very well to our kind of hobby. The map – and the process of creating a map – is the focal point of the activity. In a way, the map IS the plot of a grand adventure. I’ve played in role-playing game campaigns, where the player characters were members of a grand expedition to reach the other side of the world, past enemies and obstances who were blocking the easier, existing routes.

So, if you ever find yourself in that part of the world, I recommend not speeding by the seaport of Sines, but stop, take a break and visit the birthplace of Vasca da Gama, whose successful voyage certainly played a part in shaping the following centuries.