Lynx Farm and Arade

 Lynx Farm and Arade

The copout for this blog is just to refer you to what we did in March this year...

AWW 2015-24: Lynx Farm & Arade.....and BEES....26 March 2025

Not a lot changed , but perhaps a few things....

Plan A was to walk from the Honey Cafe, but a recce showed a rather awkward  water crossing, so Plan B was simply to repeat our March walk and hope that the bees would not be a problem in November. 21 walkers duly turned up at the Silva for a coffee and set off promptly. a few moments later , we were met by Tim comingt the other way.....whilst he had duly noted the notice on the tin, viz ".....turn left for cafe Silva and it is immediately on the left. Please note, it doesn't actually have a name outside, but there is a big Delta Coffee sign."....he nevertheless sailed past it as it didn't have a  name !

Bruce kindly waited for him to catch up ( Tim is a jogger) and we took a starter photo to use up some time:

We welcomed back Steph and David whom we hadn't seen since pre-covid days , also Audrey and James who are back looking after Bica.....from left to right....Sue, James, Audrey, Martin, Mora, Bruce, Julie, Marc,Tony, Jan, Peter, Bev, David, Karen, Linda, Ros, Steph, Richard, Stephen, Steve....

In Alan's absence, I often led from the back to take photos.....the first water crossing barely lived up to it's name...

What was that about straggling?....

The outer fence of the Lynx farm had been breached...

and the second water crossing wasn't much either...

It was good to see so much water in the Arade when we paused to admire it...

Ros and I noticed a new stream flowing into the Arade...only later did we learn it was the Funcho overflow, sorry, no picture.

As usual, no signs of lynx, but John did capture this  a few years ago.

The lunch chairs had morphed into loungers since we were here last...

We found the right hand turn easily this time...though these last hills were a bit strenuous...and thankfully no bees...

For once I managed to get to the front for a photo..

Some went to look at the  ancient graves, details at :

Circuito Arqueológico da Vilarinha – Vale Fuzeiros (visitalgarve.pt)

The rest were more interested in getting back to the Silva Cafe for a banana and coffee ( urgh!) or something stronger...

Tim nearly missed this photo too....we ended up with 22 walkers, a record so far this season.

Thanks to all who came. For some reason I recorded only 14.4kms as opposed to 15 last time....a good speed of 4.1kph, walking for a shade under  three and a half hours....though it felt like more!

Back in the day.....when we were younger....we did the 20km version of this walk;

AWW 2015-24: 1 March 2023....Fuzeiros, Lynx Farm and Funcho

Geoff

Awayday 2025 : Carrapateira

 Plan A was to continue the GR15 route north of Alcoutim but our recce party all came down with injuries: plan B was to explore further the Fisherman's Trail south of Aljezur, but David had to have a minor op , so  Plan C was devised. Ros would lead from Carrapateira, Tim & Bruce from Bordeira on Day 2 and Steve & Margaret woud explore hidden lakes from Bordeira on day 3.

Hence 11 walkers met up at the usual Carrapateira cafe  where Ros explained that this was the first walk she did when she joined the AWW in 2012....hence there was no need to recce the walk, especially as she had done it more recently with Marian. What coud possibly go wrong?

Anyway the intrpid band  of 11 set off , up a stteep hill, before gathering for the starter photo:

L to R  :  Julie, Ken, Margaret, Steve, Tony, Sue, Tim, Linda, Ros , Miriam...with Toby & Bica and Geoff behind the lens.

Without planning the boys were in blue, the girls in pink :

  

...but 2 looked as if they had opted for Reform turquoise....

Anyway, onward and upward, until we saw iur first trig point, though noone seemed willing to climb it..

We were missing our Official Photographer Alan ( still awol) but here are his trademark  views....

We passed a des res that surely only needed a bit of work...

We paused for a Minute's Silence at 11.00. Ros must have been a girl guide as she came prepared with secateurs.....albeit we did loose the trail for a while and needed to backtrack...

Up more hills....

 and then a glimpse of the sea and a chance to get one's breath back..

It was time to say farewell to Ken and Miriam...note his fashionable cummerband, which he reckoned didn't help a lot...

Some had a rest...

We wondered what these markers were for....they seemed to be spaced about every quarter/third of a km and counted down to something/somewhere...

These signs were also new to us...

We wondered about a challenge for our next awaydays, unti we discovered it was  "The Atlantic Coast Route, also known as EuroVelo 1, it  is a long-distance cycling route that stretches approximately 10,650 km (6,620 miles) from North Cape in Norway to Valença in Portugal, passing through nine countries along the Atlantic coast."....so perhaps not!

We were getting peckish, but Ros recalled a green field with cows where we could lunch....this seemed unlikey on the ridge we were on, so Linda declared UDI...

The rest of us opted to trudge on a bit to get out of the wind...

Ros was beginning to think we might have wandered of the planned track when the path we were on petered out and descended precipitously down a very steep slope...

Gentlemen Steve gave Sue a helping hand, but some of us slithered down on bottoms!

Some mountain gazelles coudn't see what the fuss was and had a snooze waiting for us...

Some lovely views of where we had been...

and where we were...

Back to Carrapateira for a coffee...to find K & M waiting as hotel in Aljezur wasn't open in afternoon!

7 of us went to Aljezur for the night and sampled the local hostelries:

This is what we did :

 

All in all, a good first day despite a couple of hic-cups. Overall speed, considering the steep ups and downs, not too bad methinks.

Thanks Ros for leading ,  Julie for the evening photos and Steve for some others.

Geoff

PS

Following comments made on the blog, Ros researched the walk done in 2015 and found this photo of where we should have had lunch...

5 NOVEMBER 2025 – PINE TREES AND BARAGEMS

 

AWW Walk REPORT – 5 NOVEMBER 2025 – PINE TREES AND BARAGEMS

The weather forecast was a bit gloomy so a few people had cried off but a decent bunch of hardy souls were willing to join me.  We met at the café in Rasmalho and had a very heavy rain shower whilst inside.  Ros pointed out the severe weather warnings showing on the TV for places further North.

When the rain stopped we drove 3kms further up the road to the start of the walk.  12 walkers and 2 x dogs.  Once everyone booted  and  suited and booted we headed off up the tree lined path.  Boasting about how lucky we were that is was not raining.

The new recruit Maura seemed to think it would be a lovely sunny day & dressed accordingly....

Ros, Ken, Linda, Bev, Miriam, Martin, Mark, Julie, Sue, Maura, Tony and Geoff (the photographer).  The dogs were Bica and Toby. 

Past a pile of builder’s rubbish  spoiling the beautiful countryside.

A bit further along we started to zig zag down the valley, through the pine trees whilst admiring all the lovely colours.  The dogs had a quick dip and drink in the baragem whilst the walkers had a banana snack or one of Ros sweeties.

Then the rain started so we ran to shelter under the trees whilst donning our raincoats. 

                                    Ros had the brightest raincoat; it also matched her rucksack.

The group was starting to spread out so the front group sheltered in a pump house whilst the back group caught up.  Martin found the electric light switch.

 

After about 45 minutes the rain stopped so we stopped to take off the raincoats.  A bit further along we reached the half way stage and waved goodbye to Miriam, Ken and Bica the dog who were taking the short cut back.

We headed down the valley past the hippie commune with caravans and tents hidden in the countryside.

 

The leader suggested we did a cheeky lunch stop in one of their tents but Julie noticed there were remains from someone’s recent breakfast so we thought better of it.

The big gate was unlocked but the small church was closed.

Happy house didn’t look so happy today as it was up for sale.

Then the rain started again so we sheltered in a ruin whilst we had lunch.  It was a bit dirty, we saw a rat scurry out and there was a bird next by the window but it was dry and there was light coming through some of the holes in the roof.

We headed round the back of the next valley and found the recently dry riverbed now had running water but luckily it also had stepping stones.

Bye now the sun was shining and we had the one main climb of the day, back out of the Valley and onwards back towards the cars. 

Back to the café for refreshments.  Linda and Julie did a cool down whilst we waited for the coffee to be served.

 

The walk was 14 kms and we completed it in just over 4 hours including a lunch break.  Geoff was impressed we had a moving average of 4km per hour.  Miriam messaged to say they found the short cut back okay and were now home.

Thank you for joining me today, I think we all had a bit of fun and lots of comradery. Also thank you to Geoff for taking the photos.

Linda