AWW 21st March 2018: Aguas Belas – Where Hazel Made A Splash

Despite this walk coming with two health warnings – one, that the Leader has been known to have lost it in the past and, two, that getting one´s feet seriously wet would be unavoidable -  only four or five possible participants found plausible or otherwise reasons to “duck” out.  Twenty-one did not.

Those Who Dared

From right to left:-

Marian, Russell, SueH, Frank, Jim, Alan, débutante Catarina, Linda, Sandra, Maria, Isabel, Hazel, Val, SueM, Ros, Jan, David, Geoff, Ken, Miriam, and leader JohnH.

Water Dogs for the day: Bica and Jasper.

The Track

Remarkably, with this large group  and despite the painfully slow business of getting starting coffees out of the non-expresso machine in Café Elias,, we set out promptly at the appointed time of 9.30 a.m. and made rapid progress up the valley to Crossroads 2. A short breather, a gentle downhill, and then another 2 km sprint up a leafy valley to the peak summit of the day.

At the Peak

“Or like the stout Cortez when with eagle eye

He star´d at the Pacific –and all his men

Look´d at each other with a wild surmise -

Silent, upon a peak in Darien.”

(Apologies to John Keats)

Well, ´tweren´t actually the Pacific, but the Arade Barragem, happily looking much fuller than of late.

Then, a reverse turn to the west and some more downhills, thank goodness.

We made our way along a recently discovered (to the Leader at least)  gradient and down to what is reputed to have been a medronho distillery –now abandoned - on the floor of the Aguas Belas valley. And here the fun began.

A day before the walk, a warning had been issued, the gist of which was:-

“To those who have signed up, or are still contemplating doing so, for Wednesday´s walk, here is a water warning.

The weather forecast looks good. But there has been quite some rain in the past few days, so that the hills are alive with the sound of water. Originally, on the intended route, it was thought that there would have been two or three water jumps. But, after  a recce yesterday, it became clear that the two or three water jumps have now become  twelve to fourteen, some jumpable, some not. At one stage, we are going to go along the Aguas Belas valley. Normally, the stream there is low to underground, nearly invisible. The stream is as lovely as its name implies but now it is above ground and it criss-crosses the track several times.

Nothing impassable, nor at all dangerous. For some of the crossings, heavy duty lixo bags would keep your feet dry, but there is one stretch where the stream simply flows along the track and no amount of plastic is going to help. There is nothing for it but to wade along the stream/track. It will be shin deep – no rapid water. But your boots and feet will get wet. So, if your Jimmy Choo treking gear can´t take water, be warned. But, if you wear Salomons or quality stuff like that, they can take it. Or if, like me, your Decathlon cheapos have holes at the sides, the water goes out as quickly as it goes in and it really doesn´t matter -  one´s  wet feet warm up nicely after 20 metres – believe me.

My advice is to bring a spare pair of socks, a towel to dry your feet with, and have another spare pair of socks and shoes in your car for the drive home. At the lunch stop, you can, if you wish, change your socks and dry your feet , because the second half of the walk is on higher ground and while damp is virtually river-crossing free.”

Shortly after leaving the distillery, we struck water –and then more water -  and then still more water again., although the levels were considerably lower than they had been on the Monday recce. It was fascinating to see the varied approaches to the challenge. A few, like the Leader, didn´t waste time, said to heck with it, and splashed straight through, boots and all. Some tried to balance on stepping stones ; others  donned lixo bags. A pair of irridescent wellies made their appearance. Some carefully took their boots and socks off, wrapped their socks in plastic to keep them dry, suspended their boots around their necks by the laces, slipped on beach shoes or flip-flops, in a variety of colours, and inched their way across; and then sat down to reverse the whole procedure, only to find that they had to go through the whole off-and-on routine 50 metres further along the track . One ot two brave souls  even went bare-footed. In all their variety , there´s nowt so queer as folk.

Here are some images of the different approaches to the problem.

The “To Heck With It” way.

The “Lixo Bags “ gambit.

The Blue Wellies strut their stuff.

The “Look at what I got at Lidls” detail.

The colourful “Beach Shoes” fashion statement.

The “All Change Again” brigade.

And the “Barefoot Stoic”.

One could but marvel at the different styles of attack.

There was the elegantly balletic Jan:-

the athletically carefree Catarina:-

the totally pragmatic Frank:-

the ecstatic “I made it”  Isabel:-

and, not to be missed,  the enthusiatically dramatic Hazel:-

“Going”

“Going”

Wait for it…. “Going”

“Gone”

“What a falling off was there!”

Well, after this, Hazel retired behind a convenient thicket , assisted by Maria, to dry off a bit, and then the group got a bit spread out at this stage –the “To Heck With It” faction forged ahead and splashed down the river/road towards their lunch.

while the “Offers and Oners” changed in and out of their socks and shoes yet again and, inevitably, fell well behind.

The first group reached the lunch stop at 1 pm and relaxed in the sunshine, drying boots, toes, whatever.

Truth to tell, this is first time in AWW recorded history that  there were two lunch sittings on a walk. 15 minutes after we had sat down and first service over, the “To Heck With It” unit asked “Where are the rest of them?” The Leader then back-tracked and met the “Offers and Oners” wearily making their way. Hazel, having by now recovered her equilibrium, was able to ensure that they all eventually found the lunch spot.

Second lunch service then took place, and more drying out and new sock routines followed. And so, the normal 20 minutes lunch stop extended to 35 minutes plus; but the sun was shining, so what.

Be that as it may, Val had had enough at this stage. She had the rest of her Agarve holiday to get on with, after all,  so she headed off in the direction of Café Terinho, possibly for a bowl of warming vegetable soup, and a lift home.

An idea was broached during the morning part of the walk and elaborated on over lunch about how to solve the drinks crunch at the end of a walk. That crunch being when one person at the head of the queue asks for a coffee, which then naturally takes up preparation time at the machine, while all that the rest of the guys in the queue  want  is to have the caps whipped off cold bottles of Sagres tout de suite and to gulp the ale down the throat. So on this occasion,  Linda took post-walk drinks orders at lunch. Let´s see later how it worked out. Our destination,  Café Elias, delightful although it is, can be slow; the proprietor is precise and very deliberate in his coffee brewing routine and will neither be rushed nor diverted.

Lunch over, we then had quite a scramble up to the top of the ridge – black mark in some people´s book to have a climb just after lunch. So another breather was needed, which gave us the chance to shoot  Jan sitting on the throne

sorry – stone.

A broad track then led us down towards Silves, with the windmill and castle in view on the right. We then swung left going east into a low valley. There was a pause at an old cottage while some rested and nearly fell asleep in the sunshine.

Then onwards for what was for some a nostalgic journey through Lingerie Lane where the very faded remnants of a pair of lady´s unmentionables was still hanging from the undergrowth.

A bit like the Cheshire Cat and its smile, not much now remains of the original material except for the manufacturer´s label but, thanks to the AWW picture archive, we can recapture what it was like three years ago.

After this diversion, the group disintegrated somewhat.The Light Brigade knew their own way home and galloped off, leaving the Leader struggling. The Rear Guard, after having  pondered on the mystery behind the aforesaid lady´s unmentionables, then stopped to gather mushrooms, were even slower, and soon found themselves uncertain as to which of several possible tracks to take. The Leader, who by this stage was nowhere at all near the front, then received a phone call for help from the Rear Guard.

“John, where are you and, John, where are we?”

The Leader blew his whistle, which served only to scare the living daylights out of a couple of Austrian walkers on their way into Silves along the Via Algarviana who just happened to be passing by  and who must have wondered what on earth they had done wrong, but achieved little else because obviously the Light Brigade way up front didn´t hear. I think that then David, Geoff and Russell, who between them knew the track home, took over while  the Leader had to go back to find the Rear Guard. All well in the end; nobody got lost.

My thanks to those who disregarded my warnings and took part, and my thanks to SueH for additional photographic assistance.

When I got to the Café, my beer was ready and waiting, so that was great. It will be interesting to find out if people think this pre-ordering is a practical idea. I gather that on this occasion SueM, reviving her running days,  galloped to the front with the orders and got things organised for us – much appreciated.

Sue gallopped, Geoff galloped, Rus galloped, they galloped all three.

After-walk drinks were very pleasant in the sun. The Café owners, as is their custom, gave us treats on the house, in this case, chocolate biscuits and sugar almond bon-bons.

Jim told us that John the Cyclist, recently back from UK, had been along to the Café to meet us –which was nice - but couldn´t wait – which was a pity. Até ja, John.

JohnH  then said a few words about how the time had come to recognise when it is impossible to carry on, such are the rigours of the AAW, and to accept that one must retire, and said a farewell………

…..to his 50 year-old Rohan shirt which can´t take it any more.

Hazel later presented the Proprietress with some flowers in thanks for her “on the house” extras.

The Statistics

Total distance: 22.5 kms

Total time:  6 hrs 40 mins.   Moving time: 5 hrs 5 mins.

Average moving speed: 4.5 kph (on the Leader´s GPS) – probably a bit nearer the 5 kph mark for the Light Brigade.

Total Ascent: 727 metres.

Lunch break: 35 mins.

Finally, it has become sort of traditional to close these occasional AWW blogs with a bit of music. It´s a fact of life that men don´t like parting with favourite old clothes. So, here is “Vecchia zimarra, senti”, a tragi-comical bit from La Bohème where one of the Bohemians sings Adios to his old overcoat which he is going to sell in order to buy medicines to comfort  the dying Mimi.

Click on:-

https://youtu.be/ArYceMAJiH8