Anyway, I am sitting here with time on my hands, waiting for the Chief Photographers contribution with his shiny new Sony Christmas present, and some delay is entirely legitimate given that he has been detailed as Chef du Jour and has to feed 12 Hungry Hope's tonight.
' Tant pis, tant mieux!' an interesting translation of which I just found in the above mentioned Newsletter " My Aunt, having relieved herself, felt a good deal better "!
And so I have time for an epigram on hiking footwear. Rod had hit on a new way of increasing the calories burnt by WAGS, without resorting to uphill and downhill clambers - make them walk on soft sand where one step equals at least the effort of two normal steps. We proceeded along the savagely banked soft sand of Praia Grande on a falling tide without the benefit of caffeine at the start to bolster morale. After about 4 km of this we turned inland on to firmer terrain, and I was wondering why I was feeling so abnormally tired after only 4km. Soft sand alone did not account for it, nor the headwind on our outward leg. And then I had my Eureka moment.
All summer long I had been wearing lightweight Salomon Speedtrak walking shoes, but on this occasion, with the impending rain and lack of topographical info in Rod's calling circular, I had thought it prudent to sport my Salomon 4D GTX Goretex walking boots. My legs were tired, and as I plodded my thoughts gelled, enough to make me conduct a little experiment when I reached home.
Used for the Twixmas Walk: Salomon 4D GTX Goretex boots weighing in at 768 grams each
Normal summer WAGS footwear: Salomon Speedtrak weighing in at 315 grams.
Simple mathematics will suffice to show that I had an additional 453 grams ON EACH FOOT. (As the mathematically educated will know, One Imperial pound is just in between 453 and 454 grams) So each time I am lifting a foot to take a pace, I am hoisting an additional 453 grams or 1 lb.
On this walk, my Withings Fitness watch informed me that I had taken 14,041 steps, which doing the maths means that during the walk I lifted an additional 6360.6 kg or 14022.7lbs or 1001.6 stones.
Is it any wonder that my legs were more tired than usual, even allowing for the recent seasonal excesses.
On top of this (see what I did there?) I was wearing my winter weight Tilley Hat, which weighs in at 149 grams as opposed to the latest stone grey technical TTCH1 model which is a mere 96 grams.
On such weight differences, Formula 1 races are won and lost. And don't even start me on the penalty of carrying a wet-weather poncho, a winter weight gilet and an additional fleece jumper.
(At this point, having successfully negotiated his Communist Themed Fusion Dinner for 12, the photos arrived! 2003 hrs)
The Walk
The start was to be at the cafe Massa Fina in Praia do Vale. Happily we all made it there in good time despite it not being a regular starting point, only to find the cafe closed, and according to Rod no other viable source of caffeine within a comfortable distance. The Baristas of Praia do Vale clearly make enough in the season to afford themselves a leisurely break over Twixmas.
John produced his new mini Gorilla pod and Sony BionZX camera and we were able at last to get a start photo with all participants at the same time!
Splendid colour and clarity from the new camera, Myriam manages to appear the shortest in the group, but she assures me she is NOT!
L-R Myriam, Tony, Geraldine, Hazel, Rod, Paul and John (4 out of 7 sporting Tilleys)
Tony makes a point!
A short way along the beach we came across a rock feature which provided amusement for some......
Taken with Myriam's OnePlus 3
Taken with John's new Sony.
Myriam pulling the plug on the beach.
Soft sand for 4 km. (taken with Paul's OnePlus 5)
Some horses appeared at the top of the beach, but luckily were not bothered by Tony's dogs!
Soon we reached the turn round point where Rod remembered a river cutting us off from Armacao de Pera, but this didn't exist at beach level though the 'salgados' behind must be draining somewhere.
We went back through some scrubby former terrain which was littered with rubbish.
and soon some much easier walking on a well made and robust boardwalk.
Further on the boardwalk became less well built but still a relief after the soft sand!
and then Rod decided we needed some more sand, and chose a path he remembered in front of some luxury houses. where it was clear the owners were discouraging pedestrians, as the paths had reverted to the dunes.
Shortly we hit the road and went to try Pedras Amarelas for our post walk snack, but as it was past 1 pm by then, the restaurant was quite full and only serving lunches. We repaired to Massa Fina, our starting point, and debated whether a 10.59 km walk merited a luxury Italian lunch. It did. as the first 5 km on soft sand was worth double the distance.
Our track.
Honour satisfied! Ignore the total time and overall average as I forgot to take the picture until after lunch! 2 hrs 50 for 10.59 km is not bad.
The lunch was befitting a WAGS end of year event.
Tony and dogs had another engagement before this pic was taken.
Myriam went for a calzone, but it was more like a scarpone da montagne
Hazel and Geraldine chose the Pizza Supreme......
...while I went for the bacon-rich Pizza Massa Fina. The food took some time to come but the crusts were certainly fine and served hot.
Rod who was saving himself for yet another gourmet dinner had a modest pair of crostini.
John went for a spaghetti dish, for which I have no name. Anyone?
Should anyone wish to improve their skills to John's level then I can commend enrolling on a course such as THIS
The pizzas were prepared in this hi-tech pizza oven which also kept the room warm.
We lingered a while and finally took a finisher photo (without Tony, nor John's Gorilla pod) feeling pleasantly replete and less tired.
The final walk of 2017, and lets hope 2018 brings some pleasant walks and equally pleasant refreshments.
‘Comrades, you should analyse your responsibility. Your stomachs will feel much more comfortable if you move your bowels and break wind’ – a thought of Mao Zedong from a speech at the Lushan Conference (23 July 1959).
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