A fine panorama by John towards the end of the walk as we came to the Lagos side of Funchal.
Unusually for a WAGS walk, this week, having been pressed into a short notice decision on Monday after the designated Leader, Chris had been forced to withdraw for an appointment, I resurrected the Via Algarvia link route to Bensafrim from Lagos Railway Station, which we had discussed a couple of weeks before.
Not only have Almargem placed a map board near the Station showing the route, but it also appears as a separate walk, GR13, in their box set of Via Algarviana, which is a must-have bible for any Algarve Walkers.It consists of a handbook describing the sectors of Via Algarviana, 14 Sector maps, and 5 link maps from transport termini to the VA, all recreated from the old military maps.
The relevant one for this walk is 3rd from the right in the front row, with poppies on the cover, which is labelled ‘Ligacao Link 4’. And so we embarked upon a new walk that had only been reccied some time ago by Almargem.
It was clearly a highly accurate publication as by chance I had taken this snap on the way round. The Algarve is at its best at this time of year. This thought was with me when I received a WhatsApp from my daughter while compiling this blog, announcing that she and family were in Geneva, waiting for a hire car. When I enquired why, she replied that they were going on holiday in Meribel. I asked why there and got the reply, ‘Snow and Skiing’. I countered that the Algarve was cheaper and we had Sun, Sea, Sand, Surf and Sardines, which to me out–trumped her, though I hesitate to use the term these days. Who knows what motivates the younger generation!!
Anyway, back to the VA Link; Obviously we WAGS think about these things, and since we had no pressing need to reach the Via Algarviana in Bensafrim, and a better choice of apres-WAGS cafes in Lagos, we decided to do the walk starting from Bensafrim. Plus it was 90m lower in Lagos than at the start.
The intention had been to gather in Lagos, and go to Bensafrim in the minimum number of cars, thereby having most of the cars at the finish, but apparently independent WAGS are no respecters of my organisational arrangements, so several drove to Bensafrim on their own, and we ended up with 5 cars there instead of 3. If only Hilke had been in charge!! Rod and I drove our cars from Lagos to Bensafrim with the Hopes, as getting 6 into one car was not on. There we met Ingrid, Janet, Peter and Antje soon after ten and took a team start photo near the market place, showing all 10 taking part on the walk.
To be fair I hadn’t realised how much of the walk would be on tarmac, but this is clearly less important to the Almargem route finders than us, but the roads were fairly quiet.
Under the A22 extension
Apparently Hazel had regaled the ladies with a morale boosting tale of shit (see contents of field), but alas I was not party to this so perhaps we can be enlightened via a comment later.
Soon we reached Colegio after the climb out of Bensafrim, and Myriam discovered her former empregada, Francelina, out taking the sun with her friends. A major reunion ensued as they had not met for many years, and of course a posed photo to mark the occasion was a must.
This made Myriam feel really tall!!
Official banana break in the shade.
Sasha managed to have a refreshing paddle.
One of the many exhilarating discussions that arose was about why ‘meter’ only became ‘meters’ after 200 and why this stone was marked in ‘meter’(s)and not ‘metres’ or ‘metros’! Also the finer differences between chapeau and capeau were explained by Paul and illustrated by a joke in schoolboy franglais.
Ingrid spotted a tattooed horse, which John duly recorded:
I suspect it is more henna-ed than tattooed.
All too soon, in fact only about 2 1/2 hours after starting, we wended our way past Continente, and then Lidl, without any ladies expressing a desire to go shopping, and arrived at the official end of our walk, Cafe do Bairro, rather than the Railway Station, where the cafe is not to the Leader’s taste.
The Ladies, perhaps sponsored by Tilley Endurables, had a millinery show…….
and having driven a man in a wheelchair to another table we commandeered centre terrace with our table for 11, as Chris had arrived in his capacity as Relay Driver.
The bifanas and tostas mistas were excellent as the coffee and Damm Frei beer, and 3 of us enjoyed the prato de dia, arroz de tamboril, at 4 Euros a plate.
It did taste better than you might imagine from the photo!
For the record here are the stats in graphic form!
Ignore the distance to destination as the GPS appeared to be fixated on the idea that I wanted to do a circular walk back to Bensafrim.
The picture of the Track
And there it was – an enjoyable stroll on a lovely spring day that was worth doing once – because it was there!
“When life hands you avocados, make guacamole”.
Myriam
- c.f. “When life hands you lemons, make whisky sours.”
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