WAGS 10.04.2019: Castelejo to Coastguard House

 After this week's digitally and aerially photo-recorded walk, I was actively considering renaming our group the WAPS rather than WAGS, on account of the excessive number of photographs (and very good ones) submitted to the Blog.

       I think you may guess that my intention with the acronym is Western Algarve Photographic Society, as we seem to be taking more artistic photos en route than actually indulging in Geriatric Strolling.

    However when I said the acronym to myself, I realised the PC danger that it might be pronounced, or still worse, spell-corrected, as WOPS, which, though it might not be particularly pejorative to any individual in our WAGS (at least I don't think so), could be construed as an offensive term by some Italian Americans or even Italians.  HOWEVER, as my etymological dictionary tells me, the widely circulated origin of the word, particularly used by Italian American Politicians to make political capital, refers to folk etymology for the word “wop,” a common term of disparagement for Americans of Italian descent, that in the early 1920s many Italians tried to enter the United States illegally. These would-be immigrants were rounded up by U.S. officials and sent back to Italy with documents labelled W.O.P. which supposedly stood for “Without Papers” referring to the papers needed for legal immigration. This is in fact erroneous.
   
You’ll find a lot of etymological bologna if you google the word “wop.” especially the above.   Oh no it is not!

“Wop,” which originated in the United States, has been a derogatory term for an Italian since 1908. But it’s not an acronym and it has nothing to do with immigration documents.

The word comes from guappo, a word in Sicilian and Neapolitan dialects that means a swaggering thug. It’s ultimately derived from the Latin vappa, or “sour wine,” a word the Romans used figuratively for a worthless guy. Come to think of it - there may be some relevance after all,

Luckily no-one has so far taken out a Court injunction over this 'Advisory Poster' at Cafe ZigZag, and at least none of the WAGS were forcibly removed.


   Having sorted that out, and for the reasons enunciated (well you can't even compare a woman to a horse let alone a cow or a female dog in these ultra-sensitive days) deciding to stick with our WAGS acronym, I found myself with a photo-rich blog to prepare, having had 60+ photos sent to me by  5 of the 10 walkers, without even looking at my own 30 photos plus track pix and stats. And don't get me started on different sizes, formats, edited versions or methods of sending said photos. They all required my personal attention to prepare them to be published in this blog.  But after all we do have a talented group of photographers, and at least two of them have proper cameras and not just smart phones. Now to the Walk - theoretically the purpose of our meetings and the justification for this Blog.

L-R: Janet Paul Ingrid Maria.Yves, Myriam, Rod, Antony, Hazel and John

       

 After our coffee, we convoyed up to the Trilho Ambiental Car Park, and began the ritual of the Starter Photo, while I was deciding where we would actually go, as following Rod's advice, it doesn't do to make a plan too early in case circumstances change. It was a sunny day, but with enough of a cool breeze to keep the windproof outer garments on.  I was feeling fairly robust, despite having forsworn the last two walks for large FEB's on our trip to UK, so I decided to consider a nostalgic re-run of the last big hill of the first day of the RTC if we had started from Carrapateira. All the WAGS and 2 or 3 of the AWW might understand what I mean by that!

 Hopefully the track picture will expand when clicked to reveal the route more clearly.  The final decision to proceed along the track shown was taken when we reached the most northerly part of the route, which is a good miradour with views over Castelejo beach  to the North and the Coastguard House and cliffs to the SW.

 First item of note along the Trilho Ambiental was this species of processionary caterpillar, who had broken with the tradition of inhabiting and destroying pine trees, and were getting stuck into the medronha bushes.

 Looking across the valley to the road down to Castelejo.

 Don't ask why everyone except Rod and Janet have decided to shrink, but this is just before the descent to Castelejo begins. 









Here I decided to lead the group down to the beach and up the RTC 'Middle way' to the Coastguard House. Not strictly within WAGS criteria, but all felt capable and there were no strong objections.

Bottom of the descent where the valley runs to Castelejo Beach

Hazel at Sea Level

 The Leader and the two that followed the authorised path up.

Seems like a lot of walkers but we met a German group going up to where the descent started.

Halfway up to the Coastguard House the two factions reunited. A good day for this climb with the wind pushing from behind.

Looking into the abyss.

The Coastguard House - much abused since the effort to restore it over 10 years ago

 The Wings of an Angel!

Inside had been vandalised

 A bizarre sentiment, but what a location for the views

 "....and we started over there!"

 "Careful Maria - there may be lip-readers around!"

 We moved on towards the Torre d'Aspe and Antony got his new toy out

 An amazingly stable drone even in the stiff breeze we had. The drone flew over us, at speeds of up to about 60 kph, and with a huge range.  Several of the ladies were forced to hold their water for fear of a fly past!

 Traditional Group shot at the Torre. You may notice that 3 of our number opted for a short cut.

The Three shortcutters

 Antonio de Montana surpassed himself with this shot of the Alien Spacecraft among the spring flowers.

In flagrante delicto!

 Garmin Stats

 Rod's ViewRanger track

 and walk profile and expanded stats.

 A short drive back to Cafe ZigZag, whose newish management not only provided Myriam with a Prato de Dia

 but also some passable bifanas 

Photographer and Director

and TM's

 and a cheese and tomato sandwich for the vegans.

Of course Antonio, although restricted to half a TM with his Dad, had his artistic juices flowing-

and produced the 'food shot' of the day. Note the carefully arranged mustard packet to draw the eye towards the bifana!

There were many more photos and apologies if I haven't included your best work. I thought there might be a tightly edited vid from Antonio's Mavic 2, but I guess he is learning a lesson. Its easy to acquire miles of video, but takes longer to edit it. A bit like Life!