John and Maria had arrived early and assessing the situation, holed up in the bakery next door, which as it turned out did a fine coffee and a tolerable tosta mista - of which more later- IF you were not in a hurry. Which we weren't, being WAGS.
Turn out was better than feared, as I only had firm responses from Janette and Rod, but John came to the rescue after he had ascertained that Maria would like to WAG this week rather than the alternative, and also Tony turned up 'sine promulgatione'.
(Author's note: As this walk was visiting the sad remnants of the Roman Villa at Abicada, I am 'carpe diem' to squeeze as many Latin Tags into this blog. And not just because John, being a student of The Greats has the sine qua non to translate them 'instanter' 'in situ' 'nec adhuc illo' a Latin Grammar. )
And so we were 7 - almost as many as the AWW produced this week, and we drove in two cars down to the start at Sociedade Recreativa Figueirense
Special Blog Bonus - Three starter photos, one each by myself, Rod and John, in illo ordine.
And this was all to save the task of John setting up his camera and making the 10 second dash. There was a suggestion about Photoshopping the photographer into each photo, but apathy overtook me in the studio. Even Jess and Shadow cooperated for two of the photos, though only one photographer managed to capture Tony looking towards the camera with his eyes open!
We set off at a carefully calculated time which would have us crossing the rail bridge between the scheduled arrival times of the Faro-Lagos Express, at 0940 and 1027,
Proceeding 'singuli' towards the bridge.
Leaving space for the train to pass through 'inter alii' 'sicut si'.
Maria ignores an impromptu Hokey Cokey by Rod and John " You put your left foot in....."
Is that a bull guarding the long dyke?
Sadly found this dead bird on the dyke, tentatively identified as a Grey Heron, rather than the more common White Stork, which is thriving in the Algarve, and has a red bill.
We came across a large congregation? of White Storks having a conference in the marshes.
Tony's dogs refused to go and round them up, so we organised a concerted stork scaring shout which had the desired effect.
Going... Going
Gone...... though I assure you it looked more impressive 'nudo oculo'
And then we had to confront the enemy.
Jess, who had cunningly deleted her natural doggy smell by plunging through the fetid marsh went first, but then faltered.......
....but with some 'moralis firmamentum' from Tony, the cow(ard)s backed down.
More wild life in the marsh
A little bit later and Maria advertised holidays in Brazil with a T shirt that had been discarded in the bushes. She declined to model it properly for us!
Soon after we crossed the dam (sadly unrecorded) and greeted some optimistic fishermen, before we came to the most exciting part of the walk - the slide down and the stagger up. I will let the pictures tell the tale.
Am I there yet...?
Myriam amused herself by putting together an art installation entitled 'Still Life - A party on the cliffs'
Jess was drying out and not smelling quite as bad. (The 'dirty bitch' of the title!)
From here we reached the turning point overlooking the esplanade at Alvor after about 4.5 km, and commenced the circuit back over the hill towards the main Alvor Road.
The group looked at Alvor Promenade but turned away.
We crossed some privately owned land beside Montes de Alvor but the owner graciously let us through. (Rod doing a fair imitation of another banker, Ricardo What´s His Name)
A fairly uneventful stroll back to Abicada, with Janette in the van, striding out at a pace well in excess of the usual WAGS amble.
“Just imagine, if you will, in Roman times this pavement was all encrusted with beautiful mosaics.”
And after 10km and 2 hrs 55 minutes we were back at the cars and ready for our Apres walk bifana/tosta.
We drove over to O Pescador in 2 cars, with Rod appreciating Jess sharing part of the marsh with him while sitting next to Tony. Then another cruel stroke. The litlle lady running O Pescador balked at preparing 7 sandwiches for our hungry WAGS. She clearly had made sufficient money for the day from the sole local sitting on the terrace with an empty bica and a full ashtray. We repaired to the small bakery the other side of the closed Tassebem, O Trigo Padaria or similar, and fortunately the girl working there was sufficiently motivated by Maria to produce a very acceptable Tosta mista for each walker except Tony . Delicious freshly baked bread with cheese and ham, but alas no tomatoes. Very filling and good value. Maria bought a large loaf to keep her going in the afternoon, and by now the sun was breaking through.
And Myriam took the lunch photo. Eyes down looking.
"We all sorely complain of the shortness of time, and yet have much more than we know what to do with. Our lives are either spent in doing nothing at all, or in doing nothing to the purpose, or in doing nothing that we ought to do. We are always complaining that our days are few, and acting as though there would be no end of them."
And finally, a Latin Quote that i wish I had discovered at the start of the APAPS season.
- "Barba non facit philosophum" - I am sure John will explain!
