The pre-walk notices went as follows:-
This walk into the hilly wilderness behind Silves will include a return to that secluded valley we visited last March and should help members of the Spanish expedition get into shape before tackling the High Sierras next month. Distance about 19km, all on recce´d tracks, no hands and knees seat of the pants stuff. Some moderately steep descents on the gravel paths so sticks are recommended. Peaceful - not many dogs around. Total ascent about 600 metres but only one short hill is at all challenging and it can be (will be in my case) taken in easy stages. Some water for dogs. On the recce the other day, the stream along the valley was totally dry, so unless it rains seriously over the three days, wading bags probably not needed. Total time probably 6 hours max. No coffee at the start, so grab one in Silves beforehand if you need to. Start time: 9.30 am.
Directions: From the Silves Dead Centre of Town (aka the Cemitério) swing north on the road towards São Marcos for only 2 kms (3 minutes drive.) Just past a short low bridge there is vacant land on your left. A short white signpost on the roadside indicates São Bom Homem. Park here. Starting point GPS: 37.12.28 N 08.26.10 W. If you need coffee, there is a coffee counter in the new Minipreco supermarket (opening time 9 am) or, across the road from it, there is the Pastelaria Castelo; both just up the road from the cemetery.
Post-walk refreshments: we will go to Snackbar Terinho Pára e Fica 2 km further up the Silves – São Marcos road. Opt-Out: I have identified an opt-out point 7 km into the walk from where there is a clear and easy route back to the start point, and that would provide anyone of the WAGS persuasion a total walk of about 11 kms , say 3 hrs in all.
Then an alert had to be sent out, because of road diversions in Silves, and one wouldn´t want eager walkers complaining about incorrect directions, would one?
I have been alerted by a very senior AWW that the normal road going left around the Silves cemetery has been closed off because they are preparing for the All Saints Day Fair.So, to get onto the São Marcos road and thence to the Start Point, when you leave the roundabout off the 124 Silves-Messines road, you should now take the first right before the cemetery , go past the Law Courts and the Centro do Saude on your right and the Technical Institute on your left, then take a left and then a right and you are on your way. Helpfully, there are small white temporary signs saying “Feira do Gado” which take you round this small deviation. Where or what exactly the Feira do Gado is, I have no idea, and unless you are particularly interested in cattle, you can probably let it be. The road to the two coffee spots is still open.
(Apparently the directions worked,because the coffee at Minipreco is now highly recommended, as is the quality of its meat and fish.)
The walk went pretty well as predicted, although the weather took us rather by surprise. On the morning, the rains of the past few days had gone and the Leader was there early sitting on a mound, in a cloud of mosquitos, waiting to see who would turn up. He was expecting possibly 13 but, as it turned out, 16 appeared. Some emails had seemingly been lost in the severe electrical storm on Monday evening.
Reminds one of an old rugby song, doesn´t it?
As they gathered, there was considerable discussion, among other things, about new boots. Val´s old ones had expired so she was going to test her replacements; Jim had brought an unmatched couple of walking shoes so decided to resort to his as yet unused boots; and Jan, knowing from past experience the rough sort of country to come, had found a pair of virgin boots in a cupboard –she didn´t remember buying them, if indeed she did, if indeed they were hers, but what the heck!
Pristine
First of the day
Despite the numbers and the chit-chat, a reasonably disciplined Starters Photo could be taken after which the Leader delivered a stern warning to would-be front runners about the number of side turnings coming up and the need to stay together.
The Starters
Ken, Russell, Frank Mc from Estoi, Ros, John D, David, Jan, Val, Sue M, Gill, Rod, Yves, Jim, Ingrid, Terry M, Janet, and JohnH.
And the three dogs who missed out on the photo were Mistie, Rosie and Bica.
And The Track
The early part of the walk was somewhat disturbed by maintenance staff strimming the overgrown verges of our path. They had actually been commissioned to do the work the day before but it had been too wet then, but that was just a passing niggle.
One to strim, three to watch
We had made our way over the hill and were making good progress along the broad paths of Herdade São Bom Homem when the dogs suddenly went berserk, diving into a ravine where their highly excited barking mingled with the squeals of a young javali which they were attacking. The principal aggressors were Mistie and Rosie, Bica demonstrating an unexpected degree of sophisticated reserve for once
Although there was some apprehension that there might be a protective mother boar lurking around, both Rod and David plunged down into the valley to try to get the dogs back, which they managed to do after some minutes, Rosie proving especially hard to get back on the leash
.
Then, Yves, never one to pass up a good photo-opportunity, went into Mad Frenchman Mode and he too plunged down into the ditch. In the event, there was no mother boar; the poor wee animal, too young yet to have tusks of its own, wounded in some way and abandoned, went to ground in a deeper ditch; Yves survived, yet again; and the walk was finally able to continue, going past the House with Dogs.
An hour or so later, after a relatively gentle ascent up a valley, we deviated a mere 200 metres up to a ridge top to reach the previously mentioned opt-out point. Here, Val was pointed in the correct direction, took her leave and set out on her own back to the cars, her ears full of dire warnings from the Leader and Terry M not to stray left nor right. Later on, some of us were wishing tha t we too had opted-out at this stage.
The Leader then took the remaining 15 back down the aforesaid 200 metres only to hear muttered complaints – you know the sort of stuff – sarky references to the Grand Old Duke of York or Silves or some such –well, your Scribe isn´t going to be so critical of the Leader . (How could he possibly be since they, as the attentive reader will know, are one and the same?)
Anyway, back we went this short distance and then continued contouring round the hill and up onto the high ridges. There there were extensive views of………………….well, of not very much actually, since it is all pretty deserted up there…electricity pylons, broad tracks, low scrub, little animal life.
By now the cloud cover had thinned, and the heat of the sun was drawing the moisture left by the rains out of the ground and it was all getting very humid. The Leader had a map in his pocket but it was now illegible because the inks had run with his sweat. Luckily he didn´t get lost and, with the aid of a couple of handily placed neolithic markers, he managed to locate the steep downhill route to the valley. It was just as well that the rains had softened the gravel a bit which made the slope less hazardous.
After traversing the valley, we then tackled the sharp climb out of it in two stages, pausing half-way for lunch by some old stone ruins. Lunch was extended to a civilised 20 minutes at the special request of Janet. Some attention was paid to new boots and anti-blister precautions were taken. Jan was also getting anxious that she might have to drink a litre of beer out of her boots at the end of the walk –such apparently is a current Hash House Harriers ritual which those with new footwear have to undergo. (In my day – vintage 1960s –70s – the Hash didn´t descend to such foolery. Come to think of it, women weren´t allowed on the Hash in those days. Could there be a connection here?)
Lunch among the Ruins
Creature Comforts
Some were now very impatient to move on after lunch, however, and Janet and the Leader had scarcely resumed the uphill drag than they caught sight of Russell, Gill, Sue M and Terry M already disappearing over the sky line. It took us several minutes to catch up with them because, as the blurb said, the Leader was going to take the hill in easy stages. He was doing his best Duke of Plaza Toro act, leading determinedly from behind. Thankfully, Russell had the group under control (at least for the time being) and they were waiting for us.
Why Are We Waiting?
After this it was (nearly) all down hill to the Dog House Corner. More drama here of a sort. Control over and lecture long forgotten by now ,Terry M and Russell had streaked far ahead and, guided no doubt by Terry´s state of the art smartphone, had gone back the way we had come, a shorter if harder route than the Leader was going. (An old HHH phrase springs to mind – Short Cutting B*****ds.) No amount of whistling could bring them back. And Rosie had decided to take another crack at the wild boar. She now had the evidence to prove it – “Nature, red in tooth and claw” indeed (Tennyson).
But some were now flagging – even JohnD was seen to sit down briefly. The heat and particularly the humidity had taken us by surprise.The Leader began to sense that people were getting sort of desperate. They were coming up to him with nearly empty water bottles demanding to be told how long their water would last and how many more kms to go. As if he could do the calculations at that stage– he was feeling as knackered as they were. In fact it was just a gentle 2 kms to go and, although cramps were beginning to bite, we all got back eventually, and made it to Pára e Fica for extremely welcome and much needed refreshment. Jan and Jim were graciously permitted to take theirs out of a glass.
Now, the stats and some more track pictures.
Total distance: 17.9 kms.
Total time (for the stragglers): 6 hrs 5 mins.
Moving time: 4hrs 30 mins
Moving average: 4.2 kph
Total ascent: 656 metres
Maximum slope: up, 27 degrees – down, 32 degrees
This one above is Terry M´s track recorded on his superphone showing a total distance of only 16.7 km but of course he took a short cut and can´t really complain about being short-changed. In his excuse is the fact that he had a tennis lesson booked.
This next one is the elevation of the track followed by those who did the whole thing:-
And this one is a composite, with the full track shown in red, Val´s opt-out route in yellow, and the SCB´s mini-route in blue.
Acknowledgements
Thanks to David, Yves and Terry for images.
Agradecimento à Ingrid pela sua assistência ortográfica.
And now, with luck, to conclude with some music:-
