The Octogenarian's Birthday Walk
Despite a few production difficulties, Antony got the basic blog out early the following Wednesday (27th) afternoon, on his way to Lisbon, and with a little titivating it is presented below, well up to standard, and very photo-rich.
The Starters.
L-R Tony with Shadow and Jess, Antony with Ember, Rod, Lindsey, Chris Terry behinf Jill behind Geraldine, Paul behind Maria (where else?), Ana half hidden behind Antje with sasha, Peter, Hazel, Dina, Myriam and John.
.
Listening to the Warden (is Antony making a comment?)
Upon starting the long descent, and fully aware that could only mean a long ascent, no complaints were raised on this occasion...slow and steady.
Having met the Warden of the Mata National de Herdade de Parra, we were warmly greeted and had his full blessing for our small stroll with the premise that we kept our faithful hounds on their leashes... Spring was in the air and the avian population were busy copulating and re-populating the fire ravaged hills...Not to be disturbed by Ember and Sasha scampering through the undergrowth. Good to see that the Warden´s Nissan had some environmental message promoting the need to save water by the avoidance of unnecessary washing of ones vehicle...and the winner was Rod´s Mitsubishi.
On reaching the bottom of the descent Myriam spied a Fiat bulldozer and went about showing off one of her myriad of skills... earth moving. To no avail... the beast would simply not start.
even the plough would not succumb to her will...
The jewel in this leisurely stroll's crown was a circuit around a particularly picturesque headland taking in views of the Barragem de Odelouca...as they say...
"A picture paints a thousand words". (CB: A thousand words would have been OK by me!)
And plenty of floral beauty along the way...
The views were, as promised, quite delightful
As Rod pondered over the view and his age, he came to the realisation that the walk was simply not long enough and offered to take a small detour in distance and altitude...
And whilst the "nayers" continued on the level contour...
The "Yayers" opted for his steep descent and additional 1 or 2 kilometres (CB: 0.8 km by my count!)
The Ayes to the Left (plus photographer John.)
Even Geraldine, blissfully lost in smile inducing music, was happy to follow Rod´s extra bit...
A quick march up the long hill brought about the much needed sweat and an amicable quenching of thirst at the top for Ember and Sasha...although whose vehicle it belonged to and who got the most space was never bought into question...
A small drive led us to the affable and voluptuous Ana where we did indeed 'para e fica'...for a good while...and a splendid 'arroz de pato'.
With the hounds still on their leashes we sat down to a Birthday banquet fit for an Octogenarian...
Sasha still showing the effects of her traumatic barbering
WAGS at their finest
And a hearty meal to which we could become accustomed ...
Arroz com pato
Espetada de Peru
and grilled robalo
followed by a heartfelt speech by the Birthday Boy himself, who also bigged himself up as a 'WAGGS' - the extra G being extra Geriatric, but he thought it meant Golden!
although the sharper detectives will realise he was merely 70 when the shirt was made!
And an anecdotal story about testicles and and an uncomfortable plastic chair by Yves...
(Just in case the French/Yorkshire accent distracted the listeners and they didn't hear the full story, here is the original video to play. It can be expanded to full screen and louder volume by the usual controls)
The Birthday cake arrived, coveted by Paul, whilst I tried to make sense of the average age of the WAGS (myself and Geraldine excluded) (see below for version applying to this walk)
(with thanks to Brio Dixon for his Excel Expertise)
Average age (excluding the dogs and the children) for this walk was 74 years, 9 months and 24 days, with 6 being above average, and 7 below average, and 1 (Maria) being frankly , a young chit of a girl!
Finally a toast with the not so amber nectar...
and down the hatch...
With a final flourish of poetry I leave you with not one, but three limericks... The non-authors should guess which was written by whom...
When Rod became Oct'genarian
He decided to be Vegetarian
But the voluptuous Ana
Produced a bifana
Which defeated this self-disc'plinarian!
Composing limericks rhyming with octogenarian
Needs wit far beyond that of a rustic sub-librarian.
He cannot just conform
With the accepted norm
But must boldly strike the pose of a rabid antidisestablishmentarian
A recently accomplished octogenarian
Considered as quite the egalitarian
But if any did plod
Behind his directional rod
Proved actually to be more authoritarian.
It would not be seemly to omit the stats and track of the longer walk by John
Total distance:- 7.44 kms. Total Time:- 2 hrs 15 mins.
Moving Time:- 1 hr 43 mins. And, mirabile dictu, Standing Still Time:- 0 hrs 32 mins.
Average Moving Speed:- 4.3 kph.
Total ascent: 268 metres.
Once we had begun the climb out of the Slough of Despond into which Rod had led us extra milers, the hill was non-stop and unforgiving: 2.68 kms long, 168 metres in ascent.
as compared to the walk the sensible ones did (below)
which stats are 6.83 km and 118 meters of climb only.
And finally a picture of the reluctant blogger in pursuit of his art, Antony a Montana
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.