WAGS 03.04.2019: Pincho Peregrination

At Quinta do Refugio, Sonia´s early morning coffee and biscuits had Chris, Yves and John purring contentedly, and the colours of the irises in her garden had Hazel and Ingrid ooh-ing and aah-ing, before the Starters assembled for their photo and the walk kicked off reasonably promptly.

 The Track

The Statistics
Total distance: 9.19 kms. Total time: 3 hrs 28 mins.Moving time: 2 hrs 24 mins. Therefore, a very healthy amount of stop time.Average moving speed: a gentle 3.7 kph.Ascent: 348 metres.

The Leader´s Report“On the 3.of April a group of 8 WAGS walkers (Antje, Chris & Sasha, Hazel, John, Yves, Janet, Ingrid and Hilke ) arrived at Quinta do Refugio for coffee and for what I hoped a not too difficult walk. It was rather chilly and windy, but we warmed up at the first long hill. We then continued on to the trig point Álamos and then down to Vale dos Montinhos to fotograf the pigs and pigletts.”

 (Your blogger took some really splendid photos here, Hazel up on the trig, warning notices on the gateposts of dos Montinhos (“Do Not Bite The Dog!”), and lots of those oh so cute little pigs, only to realise later on that modern digital cameras do demand that  you have a memory card in the blessed thing if you want to actually capture the scene. It was his own memory that was at fault; there was no card in the camera. So his photos are now in his mind´s eye only. But thank goodness, we do have a picture of the pigs, thanks to Antje.)

 “ I led this walk I think 7 or 8 years ago and was surprised how much steeper the hills have grown and how much longer the walk seems to be. We then continued further south to find the path down to the valley of Quinta Escocia. Thinking of shortening the route, I took a right turn onto a firebreak clearing. A great mistake, it ended after a while and we had to return and find another way down."

 " Checking later at home on Google Earth I realized that, continuing  straight, we would have been on the right path down that I intended to take. My apologies."

 " In the valley we returned back to Pincho where Janet and Chris rested at the Solar do Pincho and the rest walked the road back to Quinta do Refugio. Hilke and Ingrid went home and the rest met at the Barbaro in Bensafrim for bifanas and tostas mistas."

 (The bifanas were massive and provided a perfect photo opportunity as both Yves and Chris struggled to bring them under control but – no card, no photos.) Luckily, Yves and Antje were up to the technical challengew olf modern photography. Without their pics, this little blog would have been a colourless damp squib. Peter´s apologies for the wrong turning are quite unnecessary. Yes, we had to retrace our steps for a little bit, but the length of the walk overall was perfect, while the drama of Ingrid´s struggle through the deepest undergrowth, shouting “ Peter, Peter, where are you?”  when she thought that her leader had abandoned her in the swamp, was not to be missed.

It was a proper walk.

                                     Chris sampled the new Sagres product,

Antje sampled her little black bag bottle.

                                   
Sonia joined us and shared a tosta with Hazel, and .....

John had a whole, massive tosta to himself. Very good value.