As is often the case, things escalated and now we have 18 on the email list and 8 on the super elite WhatsApp Messaging list.. Of these 13 have walked at one time or other, as far as I can remember.
Anyway, to christen the blog, what better than a top end of scale walk from the famous Casa Pacheco in Romeiras.
So on the damp grey morning after the first significant rain of the season nine of us and 3 dogs met at Dona Aldina's fine establishment in Romeiras. Sadly her husband had passed away in April, and she was only opening sporadically to keep herself busy. She fired up the coffee machine when Myriam and I arrived to find her tending the field next to the cafe.
L-R John H, Rod, Myriam, Dona Aldina, Paul, Hazel, Anne, Janet, Tony, Ingrid
We had very little rain which only drifted softly down for a few minutes as we started the long ascent towards the Marmelete Road. Being cooler we made reasonable time, but it soon became apparent that I had not clearly remembered the length of the walk, and we ended up doing closer to 15 km than 11 as I had intimated.
One Man and his Dog, or the Loneliness of a Long Distance WAG
Actually that is literary licence, as it is not his dog, and John was acting in an UnWAG like manner by sprinting off uphill at a regulation AWW rate, and leaving us in his wake. He has still got it anyway.
We identified the correct turning to begin the descent into Azenas, up near the Marmelete road, but by then the slope was taking its toll and the party was well strung out. The beehives which had previously claimed Tina and Peter Schroeder as their victims were more numerous than ever, but luckily the damp cool day had kept most of the bees inside watching BV and we crept past with no incident and alas not even a photograph
At one point we identified a boundary post daubed in blue which had lasted since the second crossing of the Algarve in 1999. Three of the oldest hands posed with it.
The return was along the river valley, fairly flat and without incident though there were some giant plants growing in openings below the road and watered heavily by the stream.
Ingrid and Janet refused my invitation to climb down to give the picture some scale, so you will have to believe me when I assert that these giant leaves were over a metre in length.
John produced a track and profile of the walk, regrettably un-annotated, but according to my GPS we did just on 15 km and climbed 280 m. John made it 14.1 km and 416 m. so we will show ourselves in the best light and agree on 15km and 416 m in around 4 hours.
The definitive version, but some of you will have seen my Komoot Tour which is circulated beyond my control at the end of each recorded walk.
As we had run overtime by about an hour, several of our number were expressing anxiety about medical appointments and such. Ingrid headed of from Romeiras, but the rest of us set off back to civilisation in the form of Odiaxere where we had decent bifanas and tosta mistas at Cafe Lopo. Myriam cancelled her appointment and stayed for the lunch.
This was a top of the scale walk for the current WAGS and if Chris had been walking we may not have attempted it. It is worth reminding ourselves of the spec.:-
C.10km <3hrs, as little elevation as possible unless it is absolutely necessary, and most important a coffee at the start and some lunch at the end. No rules except you are responsible for your own actions and navigation if you lose contact, and no surprise guest walkers without the courtesy of asking the leader. It is not an allcomers group, membership just by invitation and approval, Michael Gove would find it no easier to join the WAGS than he did the Beefsteak Club. See HERE
I am almost tempted to change the name to the Sublime Society of Bifanas, but I wouldn't want to limit our choices.
Yes and before the wail goes up, we do allow women as long as they behave in a decorous and proper fashion and tolerate the occasional episode of male chauvinism.
"A good essay must have this permanent quality about it; it must draw its curtain round us, but it must be a curtain that shuts us in not out". Virginia Woolf on Literature
"The older one grows, the more one likes indecency."
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.