AWW 17 February 2016 : Funcho and Fuzeiros

 

It´s not often these days that one gets a Walk Report in a form of presentation that lends itself easily to being blogged, but somehow or other Geoff has hit upon a convenient format that includes text and relevant photos. So what follows is Geoff´s illustrated report on his walk of 17th February. Could he be the candidate to pick up the blogging flame and carry it into the AWWs 20th year?

AWW 17 February 2016 : Funcho and Fuzeiros

19 walkers and 2 dogs turned up at the more civilised time of 1000, though at least one arrived half an hour early, having not been properly briefed. Jan , despite her protestations that she had a more pressing appointment , had clearly decided there wasn’t enough tarmac so declined to come ( how could any appointment be more pressing than an AWW walk?).

The walk was basically David’s, that Sue & I had recce’ed with Ros, Linda & Russell and Alan & Trish : my thanks to them. We had added a couple of enhancements/improvements though : number one being a start at the O Gralha, rather than the back of beyond behind the Funcho.

Here is the usual starters photo, please notice the sunshine:

We welcomed newcomers Inge and Iain & Margaret , and welcomed back Stephanie & David after a year! L to R back row : David L, Stephanie, Hilke, Frank, Iain, Geoff, Sarah, Antje, Sue, David, John D, Inge. Sitting : Ros, Manuella, Russell, Maria, Hazel, John H.....I think I must have been standing in front of Margaret : apologies!

The first scent of dissent in the ranks was apparent when some walkers thought corner-cutting was in order:

Russell volunteered to untangle a horse’s rope that had been caught in a bush, but not too successfully as the horse didn’t appear to want to be untangled and began charging about, with Inge and Antje helping.

Ros and Manuella admired a tree that couldn’t quite make it’s mind up as to whether it was an orange or a lemon one:

Whilst the rest of us got our first view of the Barragem do Funcho, though the tide seemed a little out:

9 of us decided that David’s idea of walking around the Funcho was a bit tame, so set off up the hill for the trig point:

 

the other 10 making more sedate progress along the shore.

The new David decided to follow the trend he established last year and take over Maria’s job:

The Magnificent Nine risked life and limb to descend to the main track, only to find the wimpish 10 enjoying lunch in the sun:

David may have called this descent “ quite steep” but most others ranked it “ very steep”:

And so around the western end of the Funcho, getting much nearer the water, though by now it had clouded over : the low tide meant one of the original houses was now visible!

For some reason, walkers straggle more on the level than climbing/descending and we had to regroup on more than one occasion to let the backmarkers/laggards catch up....mutiny no.2 was when they then marched on without the leader’s say-so, having to be pulled up short with a whistle blast : a blogable offence muttered one ( rather richly, methought, as he was an original corner-cutter)

And so, with a bit more uppy-downy ( perhaps the steepest part of the walk) the end came in sight, though Rosie had to cool off in the muddiest puddle she could find:

The total distance for those that walked to the trig point was 18.2k ( said John D ), with a time of about 4.5 hours including lunch : those who opted for an easier life, probably 0.5k less. Whilst the height climbed seemed a lot, the GPS holders had figures ranging from 200m to 600m, so take your pick.

Finally, an old painted cistus was spotted at the lunch location : these were originally done by David and Terry to mark the Algarve Way:

 

Thanks to all who came and to David for his efforts in writing up the walk originally. If anyone wants the map of the walk together with a detailed description of it, please ask him.

Geoff, 17 Feb 2016

PS from John H :

Distance: 17.7 km

Total climb: 672 m  Total Ascent: 629m (don´t ask me what the difference is!)

Total time: 4 hrs 50m

Moving time: 4hrs 04m (which, if true, means that Geoff scarcely gave us a breather apart from lunch)

Av. Moving speed: 4.4 kph

Av speed: 3.7kph.

PPS from Geoff

Bom Dia David

Here are John's track maps that I omitted from my report the other day, would you please circulate?

They do mark the "rambo" version , via the trigpoint, rather than the "wimpish" track by the barragem of course....

And, before Ros corrects John, it should read O Gralha, not O Grelha!

Geoff

PPPS from JohnH

O Gralha – of course. How could I be so careless? O Gralha  -the jackdaw, or the prattler. cf the verb “gralhar”  to chirp, make a noise. Here´s the corrected track.

Let´s hear it for Geoff !