Rod kindly offered to lead a gentle walk from Bensafrim market, for the benefit of the convalescent and debilitated (our fastest growing sector), and not just because his left fetlock was feeling the strain of some recent activities. Google searches for off-road mobility chairs have increased of late………
………and there are some great options. Start saving now, and looking for test drives!!
At 10 in the morning Bensafrim Market Cafe is open and catering to the usual crowd of village worthies. The congregation was swelled by 10 WAGS and 2 dogs arriving at the cafe.
L-R Peter, Guido, Thyl, Janette, Hilke, Myriam, Chris, Sascha, Antje, Rod and Misty.
Thyl had brought Guido along, whether under orders from Gita or not was never really established. . It transpired that he was a nephew, who had been living in Silves for 2 or 3 years, but had clearly never crossed paths with the WAGS nor AWW as he was clearly far too young.
Another novelty was that far from aspiring to our healthy, nay saintly life styles, he had lapsed and was now a regular smoker of roll-up cigarettes, something that hasn’t been witnessed on our walks hitherto, and he even demonstrated his ability to keep the fresh country air at bay by sucking away while walking along. I suspect that by the end of the walk, he had been proselytized sufficiently by the WAGS anti-smoking lobby.
Janette was back for her second walk, practically a regular, as no contra indications had been unearthed, except perhaps an inconvenient allergy to textile walking footwear, but she is imminently heading back to Holland to remedy this.
It had been cool when we set off from home, but by the time we started walking the sun was beaming, and minimal breeze, so clothing was doffed as far as was decent, and it was a wonderful day to be out in the countryside. So much so , that there were no complaints when Rod set off uphill for a long gentle climb, except from Thyl who wanted more, and set off further uphill at one point, ostensibly for a call of nature, but disappeared along a ridge, not reappearing until some time later, after a few calls and Antje and Rod demonstrating their whistling skills.
We went a little off road, but I reckon it is scooter accessible.
After a couple of hours, we had turned for home when the more perspicacious noticed that the track crossed a deep stream, that would require extensive engineering works to cross and remain dry. Antje danced across the shallowest bits in her big boots, but it was not an entirely waterfree crossing. Thyl appeared not to be concerned with a minor obstacle and strode manfully across the deepest bits with the water gushing into his boots. Chris also made his way across, but I didn’t see if he sank or swam.
The leaders, who both had non-goretex low cut boots looked for an easier solution and walked along the bank parallel to our intended direction, hoping for a drier option. It rapidly became clear that not only were we not going to find a shallower crossing, but that we were not going to be able to thrash our way through the tangled vegetation and even reach the bank for some distance. Perseverance and hydrophobia prevailed and after about a kilometer we found that the the intended path recrossed the river and that we were standing smug and dry on the correct side, while the adventurers had to risk another bootful to rejoin us. Sometimes the best course of action is to do nothing!!
From there it was a flat 2.5 km back to the village, in on the tarmac past the laundry.
After the long run in, we found that the thoughtful villagers had put out seats for our recovery. The cloud had come over, the breeze increased and it was definitely cooler by the end.
There were some fine melons and gourds growing through the fence of one plot.
Unfortunately for us we arrived back in the village during the workers lunchtime, so Cantinha de Gloria was packed with diners. We must go back and arrive before 1215 next time. We diverted to our old venue, Cafe Nacional, where those of us that had time to stay were seated easily, and indulged in some very passable tostas mistas. and caught up with the Portuguese news on the omnipresent cafe tv.
For the record, the walk stats were.
A fairly respectable performance, and I had enjoyed the bonus of finding a geocache on the way round, duly recorded by Myriam.
Cache number 2069 for Team Caracache
The track picture actually worked this week.
Post Script. As the header to the Blog says, The WAGS are an Invitation Only Group of Friends with fairly loosely defined parameters about the length and conduct of walks. If you are not the leader and wish to have a guest, it should generally be a visiting family member, or someone known to several members of the group as an ex AWW. In any case guests should be cleared to attend by the Leader. It is not intended to be a free for all like the current iteration of the AWW, which may be a more suitable group for introductions.
“What does education often do? It makes a straight-cut ditch of a free, meandering brook.”
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