WAGS 21.11.2018: Poets and Sculptors

    There is a fine line between a Jack (or Jill) of All Trades and a Polymath.  Perhaps what we should aspire to in our retirement from a variety of fields, is to be what could  (and must in this age of equality) be referred to as Renaissance Persons.  This thought crossed my mind and I decided to investigate what made up a Renaissance Person.  One does not have to have been born in the Renaissance Period, though some are closer than others to having achieved that. When you mention the term 'Renaissance Man' usually the first name that springs to mind is Leonardo da Vinci, and the connotation is that you have to be master of a wide field of disparate skills and learning. Well-rounded is another term, although in the context of modern life that may be taken in a different way.
  The Renaissance ideal was to try to embrace all knowledge and develop yourself as fully as possible. A person should be skilled in different areas: intellectual, artistic, social, physical.
A man or a woman with these ideals, should be able to speak and write with eloquence, describe things clearly, and be persuasive. He should also be physically fit and have a deep knowledge of various subjects. Having all these abilities would result in the perfect gentle(wo)man who is able not only to talk about any subject, but also contribute to advancing the knowledge of the race in general and his close contacts in particular.
    Now of course where I am headed with this is to demonstrate that not only are WAGS renowned for their athletic prowess, but are not averse to learning in the artistic and spiritual realms, and have a unique ability to talk on any subject, even while going uphill.  I even thought about renaming our group the RAGS (Renaissance Artistic Geriatric Strollers), but I did not want to exhibit too much elitism over the Other Lot!

   And so after two weeks of stretching the boundaries of athleticism, we met in a sadly water-depleted Barao Sao Joao, for a cultural walk along the Passeio das Poetas and after a loop, on to the still developing Sculpture Hill. Sadly water depleted, because a digger had deliberately cut off the water supply to the hamlet, without notifying the WAGS leader nor the Vadibar coffee shop.  The Leader was himself forced to start the walk with a caffeine deficit, and if it had been anyone else leading, no doubt he would have commented adversely.

L-R: Yves, Frank, Ingrid, Hazel, Antony, Maria, Paul, Myriam Rod, John, Hilke and Peter and Pritti

A bright start. Not sure why Yves Frank and Ingrid have started to lean, Perhaps
John's aspherical lens is suffering from astigmatism.

We set off up the broad path that leads into the Mata Nacional, more of a busy road these days, and it surprised me by being far more uphill than I remembered.

Sunny but cool as can be seen by the coats and jumpers.

   After about a kilometer we arrived at the heavily graffitied Forestry House.

Maria posed as an orphan. There are a series pictures of children similar to these by a street artist called Alias, mostly in the Lagos area, but these appear to be by an artist called Tina, perhaps one of the itinerant visitors to the Forest area in a motorhome.

There was also a fine looking mobile home.........

........complete with bearded gypsy!

Plus - a rare and real bonus.......

........a well-appointed public toilet with paper and running water.

This was close to the start of Passeio das Poetas and most of us stopped to admire the exhibits on this short 1.5 km path.

Some even took a rest..........

....and created an artistic selfie!!

Is it a giant thong, and where is Myriam?

Reading poetry on rocks.

An itinerant musician - it's all art and culture round here!

The rock used was extremely hard and according to the artist was inscribed using diamond-tipped drills. Apparently they got through a lot of bits.

Each rock had originally an alfarrobeira sapling planted behind it, but few of these had survived.

One had Pritti planted in front of it!!

Some rocks were carved and polished - speaking for themselves.

A pleasant stroll through the shady woods. Atmospheric shot by Antony.

Rod narrowly missed being lasered from above!

Our average speed had dropped during the intellectual rigours of appreciating poetry in a foreign language - helped by Ingrid, Maria and Myriam with their free interpretations, so we resumed the path at a good pace.

This is the last photo of us all together until we reconnected just before Pedra Blanca.  At this point John took off as if there was a caneca further down the track. Yves went after him, and Antony was despatched to rein them in. Unfortunately  all 3 then missed the short cut and ended up doing what I later calculated as a 1.2 km extension.

A spot of rain as we pass the fans.

The Track according to John on his shiny new large screen GPS. He recorded it at 10.8 km.
Has it struck anyone else that this either looks like a seahorse being clubbed or a fanciful new F1 Grand Prix Circuit?

For comparison the official track, according to Rod's Viewranger which came in at 9.7 km, and had a wealth of stats on the side. The locations of the large wind fans are marked

The official LocusMap track on my phone stayed recording for the whole route, and came in at 9.66 km.

So the casual reader may be engrossed by this display of GPS expertise, and to a certain extent, they would do well to admire the progress we have made since I first borrowed Tony Webster's GPS 19 years ago to record the 2nd crossing of the Algarve Way. This was not long after the era of the Bamboo Diagrams to record our tracks for posterity!

The bulk of the walk was from the Poets Path to the Sculpture Hill, and indeed the same artist had been involved in both, Deodato Santos, a retired art teacher and BSJ resident. He has several collaborators in this project which has been going for well over 10 years and never fails to delight.  

The sculptures refer to political comment, which is sometimes hard for  someone who is not 'artistic' to decode. However they are all on a striking scale and convey strong imagery. There are many new ones, and several have been published in blogs before, but they are always fascinating.  There was an article on the Artists of BSK in the Portugal Resident which can be found HERE (click link)

.......and many more.  A fairly comprehensive collection of photos can be found in Commons Wikimedia.

HERE (click link)

This sculpture of 'A Shark in Sheep's clothing' (which is not by Deodato but was donated) is interactive and Antony couldn't resist giving the handle a wind.....

.....to reveal a couple of smaller fish coming out of the shark's mouth.

Caption anyone?

After all this culture we were ready for some food and drink.  While admiring the sculptures, we had been passed by a large (20+) group of walkers based on Lagos Marina.  BSJ's limited catering facilities may have been stretched, but no worries - acting on a tip off we headed for the bar that had once been known as Palmeira for obvious reasons. Since our last visit it had changed hands and was now run by an English woman, and had an ambitious and slightly expensive lunch menu, and rejoiced under the name of Bistro@Barao. This probably accounted for the fact that there were no locals in there when we arrived at about 1:30 pm.

The top table! Some nice art on the walls to round off our cultural experience.

As the regular barmaid was out on an errand Hazel took over.

John, Yves and Paul spotted an All-day Full English on the menu and calculated they had burned enough calories on a 10 km walk to indulge in the .........

......Breakfast of Champions - and very good it was too.

Fortunately, I'm a Celebrity is currently running on TV so we are all quite inured to eating live grubs and insects. A small white maggot was spotted wriggling on the Top Table, and soon sourced to the rim inside the top of the mustard bottle.  Luckily the bottle was new and unopened, but we examined the other new bottle and found a similar maggot inside a weblike structure under the lid!  Quite a few flies in the air too!

Management when advised, glibly disowned it and said 'It must have come like that from the shop!'   We were too hungry to take account of such trifles, and after a quick wipe, dispensed the mustard onto our sausages.  
       Antony went for the Vegetarian FEB, but with a one-woman kitchen, the freshly cooked food was a little slow in arriving, and he had fallen asleep by the time it arrived!

There is nothing like being on a diet - yes nothing like it!!

Maria, Hazel and Myriam all opted for the vegetarian aubergine and spinach curry which was declared a success.  Rod had decided that as he was dining out later, a modest French Toast would suffice......

.....and modest it was!

A different type of catering from WAGS standard, but nevertheless a refreshing change, apart from the absence of non-alcoholic beer, which only upset one person. Maria had a locally brewed stout, (Algarve Brewery?) but it was unfavourably compared to the dark beer from Sagres. Hazel and Myriam were satisfied with their Pukka 'Love' tea. At their age you take what you can get!!

Thus, a proper WAGS parameter walk - for those that followed the official route anyway, as the Gold Standard for route recorders - my Garmin Oregon - shows!

I have manually added in green, the extra distance covered by John, Yves and Antony. I am sure they enjoyed it, and John, indeed, appeared to be on a mission, but it always pays to stay near the leader!

A good moving average, but the overall average was brought down by our browsing of the poems and the sculptures. Total ascent came in at 197 m (Garmin) and 246 m. (ViewRanger)

LocusMap had it at 291 m. but I doubt it was that much.

To finish the Limerick of the week. Please don't be offended at my attempts at poetic humour but they are All True!!

A spritely Old Roué called Yves

Played Adam to several young Eves.

    When e'er he would roam

His wife called him home.

Now he quickly eats roots shoots and leaves!

WAGS 14.11.2018: Apenas mais uma colina!

From long and detailed study of WAGS and their walking habits, I have reached a definite conclusion;  Some WAGS don't like excessive vertical movement either up or down. Sadly this number does not include Rod, who is still wont to throw in a loop or a disguised grunt to a trig point at the end of his walk. He seems to enjoy the rumbles of discontent nay rebellion (on some occasions) that these antics provoke. " WAGS parameters" are quite often loosely applied.

Nevertheless, when it is all over, Some WAGS may reluctantly agree that it was (a) probably good for them and (b) justified tucking in to Sra. Fernanda's very tasty Jardineira in the middle of the day.

   This weeks walk was just such an occasion. When I saw the start was to be at Retiro dos Pescadores, I relaxed and anticipated a gentle perambulation followed by a Full (modified) English as I had become accustomed. Not so!  We started amiably enough with a slightly different access to the levada, but then launched into  a steady uphill, which appeared to sustain its gradient right until the end of the walk some 10+ km later. How we ended up at the same altitude at which we started was a miracle worthy of MC Escher (qv.).  It may be that we 'glass half empty' types only remember the sections that reinforce our opinions, but there must be a more scientific explanation as to why uphills consistently outnumber downhills and flats!

Starting WAGS: Yves, Dina, Lindsey, Myriam, Rod, Hilke, Paul, Frank, Terry, Jill, Anthony, Ingrid plus Maria who had obeyed a call and missed the photo!

Nice to welcome back Frank, accompanied by Shelley, back after an extended absence, but he could have picked a less demanding comeback. I wonder how he was on Thursday morning!!

Here is Rod's report, which doesn't go a long way to explaining why I was so tired at the end that I could barely manage a second plate of Jardineira!!

Present

Paul & Myriam, Yves, Ingrid, Terry & Jill, Hilke, Frank, Lindsey,  Maria, Dina, Antony and Rod (with Shelley and Ember)

A good turnout on a splendid autumn morning when we forgathered at the redoubtable Café Retiro de Pescadores in Pedreira.  We set off nearly on time indeed, along John H´s favourite canal path...the trouble with this route is that dogs invariably opt for a canal swim with no thought about how they are going to scramble up the steep sides to get out. Shelley couldn´t.... but her waterdog heritage kept her afloat long enough for Antony to extricate her!  

From there on we set off up a valley not trodden by us for many a year. This was certainly through fire territory but life continues and green shoots are everywhere appearing....although inevitably much of this is eucalyptus regrowth. Still that probably gives us a good decade until the next blaze!

The track gets steeper and steeper which inevitably elicited the first mumbled grumbles, but finally reached the ridge with splendid views back south to Silves and the surrounding countryside. 

From there we continued north winding down the steepish descent to the valley leading to the Barragem do Arade.  These tracks have generally been well cleared for fire truck access so make the going reasonably easy even if clothing gets streaked with black ash from burned cistus.

Going down into valleys generally means going up again to get out and so it was, still heading north. A final sharp climb up to the next ridge saw us at the point where we could reasonably head for home. 

At this point we joined the Via Algarviana for a stretch and once again we noted the number of VA waymarks severely damaged by fire and will need replacing. This will be a lengthy and expensive job for Almargem.

Burnt out (the VA post not Rod!)

We descended back down a fairly oft used track before turning off left to get us back to the beginning of the track where we began.

At fractionally over 10k. this was within WAGS parameters even if the ascents and descents were nearer the borderline.

Back at the Pescadores the menu do dia was still available so some of those who stayed tucked into their hearty soup and stew rather than the usual tostas.

     The  other point not mentioned is that some of us would have been better advised to wear dark or even black trousers, as the effects of charred cistus on light trousers is ably demonstrated by Anthony.

Fortunately, his staff will take care of it when he gets home!

The prize for Best Graphic Depiction of Route on this occasion goes to Yves with his ViewRanger entry which seems to have captured a good assortment of stats.

My LocusMap Stats were comparable but presented with less detail.

But I prefer to believe the ViewRanger altitude gain and loss of 426m. And we won't count the Garmin figures which yet again managed to include most of the leg from Lagos to the start, and ended up with 42km.

A few other pics on the way round.

Well-watered marrows/melons?

This was the flat bit!

Uphill again!

Most of the route was through fire-damaged country.

A break at the top of another hill!

The diners, back at Retiro dos Pescadores.

Anthony managed to get temporarily uncertain of position, while answering an 'important' phone call. Fortunately for him the decisions he had to take at junctions were assisted by a phone call to his father who advised him to keep following the Algarve Way signs, - at least the ones that hadn't been burnt away!

    Back at Pescadores, the usual suspects had urgent things to do, so we were left with 7 of the 12 to consume the stew that Dona Fernanda had saved for us - and yes Maria does look like that after a carafe of wine!!

Thanks Rod for a nice but slightly more demanding walk. Fortunately at our age, memories fade quickly, so I may even believe Rod next time he proposes a walk of "WAGS sort of distance maybe minus the sting in the tail!", though to me the 'sting' was most of the way through!

This week's challenge was to write a limerick with Myriam as the subject. Had to take a bit of poetic licence to get one of the key rhymes.

A lively WAGette called Myriam 

Was a fan of the strict WAGS  criterium.

     But the height of her joy

     Was Paul her Toy Boy

She was left in a state of delirium!