Away Days 2018

AWW Torres Vedras, November 12 – 16^th 2018.

The Tale of The Torres Vedras 15 – or was it 13? Or 11? Or 6? ……

Our 2018 ´Away-Days´ visit was certainly eventful, for all kinds of reasons – tinged with grief for some, cut dramatically short for others, comically complicated in a couple of cases, potentially disastrous for one diner,  but the overall feeling on our return - those of us who survived the week intact anyway – was that of real pleasure and the sense of having been somewhere different.  So, why all the drama? Read on, dear friends……

The Location.

The town of Torres Vedras lies around 30k north of Lisbon. It has a long history, with typical Moorish connections and a fine castle, but its chief claim to fame is as the hub of Arthur Wellesley´s (Wellington´s)  lines of fortifications, built against the Napoleonic armies invading Spain and Portugal in the first decade of the 19^th century. Today, apart from the ruins of these defensive lines, the area is known for its wine-growing and, not far away, a most attractive coastline. We intended to investigate all of these delights during our visit.

The Pre-amble.

Originally a party of 18, the full group a week before departure had shrunk to 14, but was then augmented by one. Then, in the same week came news of a death which meant that some folk would only be able to have two days with us.

The Party.

The 15 starters consisted of: Miriam and Ken Wood, with Bica, David and Dinah Littlewood, Bob and Maggie Braddock, Frank and Lorna McEwan, Paul and Dianne Wittingham, Ros Smith, Eileen Dalton, Martin McKenna and his friend Barbara and John Davey.

    The group on Walking Day One. Barbara behind the camera, Dinah still in bed.

The Accommodation

We were booked at the Stay Hotel in the centre of Torres Vedras – seemingly the only hotel of any real size in the place. The setting is very pleasant, with a small green area outside, in the middle of 

which is a  large obelisk commemorating some of the battles of the Peninsular War. Ken and Miriam had booked in elsewhere, in order be able to take Bica the hound with them.

    Stay Hotel, Torres Vedras.

The Arrival.

The journey from the Algarve looked quite long and potentially difficult in prospect, but in fact going by car, using the Vasco da Gama crossing to get through Lisbon, proved very quick and easy. Not everyone was so lucky……..

Frank, Lorna, Paul and Dianne arrived from a visit to Porto minus their car, which had developed a fault. This had meant getting a hire car, which would have to be returned to Porto and exchanged for the repaired vehicle. (This on top of the fact that Frank and Lorna would have to leave early for a funeral in the UK.) Ros and Eileen staggered into the hotel fresh from a nightmare rail journey after their train from Lisbon was cancelled. Three changes later…. Bob and Maggie were already in residence, having arrived the previous day.

 The rest of the party had better luck, and all were safely gathered in by the time we met up in the hotel bar and left there for the local Irish Bar down the street. They did have Guinness, but the young lady behind the bar seemed surprised when I asked for it. What was all that about?

Dinner on this first night was booked at a restaurant not far from the hotel. Taberna 22 proved to be a smart and comfortable place. We were accommodated upstairs with two other groups, and enjoyed a most acceptable meal. Arrangements were made for the following morning, and so to the horizontal.

    Taberna 22

Walk Day One. Coastal Walk, Assenta to Porto Novo.

The plan was to walk a section of the Rota do Atlantico from the village of Assenta, via the seaside resort of Santa Cruz, to the tiny cove settlement of Porto Novo. From there, a pre-booked taxi would take the drivers back to collect the cars. Planned distance was around 17k. Sadly, Frank and Lorna had to go back to Porto to exchange cars, so were unable to walk.

After breakfast (one feature of the hotel that was not too brilliant), all walkers departed for Assenta, armed with directions and GPS, in spite of which not all found the start-point first time round, and I walked the same bit of road three times before the last car turned up. With no need for pre-walk refreshments, we started along the tarmac and then turned off on a good track towards the sea. This then became a narrower path through stands of bamboo. I was merrily striding out ahead when a shout from behind brought me hurrying back. Miriam had slipped on some lying bamboo stalks and was on the ground with what was clearly a badly damaged leg.

There followed a flurry of phone calls, from me, Ros, and a very concerned Portuguese lady from a neighbouring house, to 112. I was fully expecting three ambulances to turn up at once, but in the event only one arrived, quite promptly, and took Miriam away to the local hospital. Ken had to take Bica back to their lodging, so Ros went with Miriam in the ambulance. The much-depleted party then resumed the walk.

NOTE. Miriam was patched up in Torres Vedras and then Ken took her back to the Algarve, where she was operated on in the early hours for an ankle broken in three places. She is doing well, and is looking forward to joining us for Christmas lunch.

Casualty on the way home.

With the delays at start and shortly after, the chances of finishing the planned walk in decent time were receding fast. Good progress was made over the clifftop section from Assenta to Foz (deSao Pedro da Cadeira), where the fragile state of the land was obvious. Mud and degraded shale indicate a landscape which could disappear into the sea in large lumps at any time. The sea was running high, looking very attractive on a sunny day with a very cool and quite strong wind blowing in our faces.

Descending to Foz, we found a more or less deserted foreshore where we paused for refreshment. Then it was over the bridge at the mouth of the river and onto a broad beach, along which we walked for around 2k. Tiring work, because the sand was more yielding, even at the tide-line, than I had expected.

    Barbara, Martin and YT lead the charge along the beach.

 Exiting the beach, we walked under a cliff that showed exactly how friable and dangerous these faces are, with evidence of concrete reinforcement and netting everywhere.

From here we walked along a much better dirt road surface and eventually down into Santa Cruz, which is a substantial resort but, like Foz, seemingly deserted as the off season is now well under way. The decision was taken to cut the walk short here, and to look for lunch. I made contact with Antonio, our taxi-driver, and informed him of our change of plan. A small café-restaurant was found and we settled down to various light bites – though not so light in some cases, as three large toasties proved a bite too far for some.

Approaching Santa Cruz

Antonio duly turned up and took John and Martin back to Assenta for the cars. When they got back to us, we returned to Torres. It had been quite an exhilarating walk, but we only made about 11k, with Porto Novo signed as a further 6.2k along the trail.

Dinner on our second evening was booked at a restaurant a couple of k outside Torres Vedras, in a small settlement called Paul. O Barracao was booked ´sight unseen´ unlike the other eateries of the week, but it turned out to be very welcoming, and the food and wine were again well-received. The fact that the bar at the hotel (staffed by the reception staff) was also taking good money from the group was helping the atmosphere no end. Frank and Lorna had rejoined the group, but only until the following morning, when they would have to depart for their flight.

Walk Day Two. Foz to Torres Vedras.

The idea for this walk was to cross the coastal plain behind Foz, and walk into the more undulating country to the east, ending up back in the town. I was slightly concerned that the terrain would not be that interesting, but I need not have worried. However, all did not go smoothly, especially at the beginning…….

Antonio turned up bang on time with his mini-bus, to take us down to the coast. By this time, the walkers had been reduced to only 6. Paul and Dianne had taken Frank and Lorna to the airport, and John was feeling out of sorts. Eileen was having a day out with Dinah. I was left wondering how I could lose my permitted 10% without taking a saw along.

We left Foz to walk along the winding course of the Sizandro river, once more in bright sunshine, and without the cold wind of the previous day.

    Bit flat at the start - good for pumpkins!

 All was going well, and then I received a call on my mobile. Dealing with a parking problem earlier in the morning (we had to park on the street the night before, as the car park was closed, and I had gone out to feed the meter) I had held on to the car keys, which were nestling in my trouser pocket. Dinah and Eileen were due to go sight-seeing in Obidos. Ensued a pantomime, with Dinah taking a taxi to meet us at a main road crossing at Sao Pedro. In fact it worked out well enough, as we were able to identify our precise location near a petrol station, and the keys were delivered. Meanwhile, we had taken the opportunity for an early pit-stop at the café in the petrol station.

Car key rescue and coffee stop. (Think this is an old photo from Google)

Moving on, The Big Six continued to follow the course of the river for a while longer, before leaving it to begin climbing very gradually. On every side were vineyards, the vines turning every autumn shade, and making ever-changing patterns in the countryside. We were finding waymarks at various points, but they were not consistent, and I was more than glad I had printed my google photos on a sufficiently large scale.

 We passed straight through the small town of Bordinheira, having had our coffee stop so early, and started to climb rather more seriously following the development of the hills. We passed indications of the fortifications, and walked for some time along roads originally constructed on Wellesley´s orders, still in remarkably good condition. Lunch was taken by the side of the track, with a good view back towards the coast.

Ros wanted to go to Ventosa to get some tourist info for a future trip, but our path by-passed it, and the next settlement we reached was the village of Montengrao. Here I hit the only navigation problem of the day. Did anyone know where Rua dos Matos was? Apparently not, and my photo this time was too small. Other people´s mobile devices identified a café, (Café Da-Da!) which was closed, but thankfully round the corner we found a small pastelaria where we stopped for a beer and got some directions. The sought-for Rua was located, and on we went.

    Rua dos Matos!

 Descending into a valley, we were faced with a hill larger than anything we had seen all day, beyond which lay Torres Vedras. I informed my companions that happily we would be walking round it. Once we turned the corner and began to walk below the length of the hill, it turned out to have about three summits, so the decision was quite definitely a good one.

     Hill to avoid (at the end of the walk!)

The final stage of the walk was to climb briefly to a ridge overlooking Torres Vedras, and then to descend to the town down an overgrown footpath. We had covered an estimated 22k. On a wet day, it would have been totally miserable, but we were so very lucky to see this land in all its autumn glory.

Torres Vedras from the final ridge.

Dinner that evening had been billed as ´find it yourself´, but John, left to his own devices, had been busy. He had found a small, far more traditional restaurant a short distance from the hotel, and persuaded most of the party to go there. It was a revelation, packed to the rafters, with excellent food delivered by, among others, the larger than life lady of the house who was an entertainment in herself. Added to a much smaller bill, it was a great success.

Walk Day Three. Circular from Sobral de Monte Agraco.

Route Day Three. North is left.

The point of this third day was to visit an interpretation centre to learn more about the Lines of Torres Vedras, and then to walk to at least one of the larger forts. This entailed a drive of around 15k to Sobral, south-east of Torres. Centre opening time: 10.00 Walk to commence: 10.30. Nnnnnope.

Everyone set off more or less on time but, group organisation being the mystery that it is, everyone arrived at different times, half the group got lost in Sobral, and the visit to the centre took place in two halves. Having run around for a good half-hour, Ros and I repaired to  a café while the others had their video and short tour, which was quite informative. We started the walk from a square outside the centre, which was the scene of a street battle during the Peninsular War, depicted in a painting in the exhibition. Apart from a bandstand replacing a market cross, the place looked exactly the same, and imagination did the rest.

The square, Sobral. Interpretation Centre left of the `P`.

Leaving the town, we soon turned off the road, and quickly climbed up to the village of Outeiro, where we began to see the panoramic views which stayed with us all day. The weather was not quite so sunny on this third day, but there was never any chance of rain. It quickly became clear why the area had been ideal for the construction of defensive points, with ranges of hills dotted with higher peaks all round us. Once more we found ourselves walking along cobbled roadways constructed by the Wellingtonian armies and their gangs of labourers.

 Avoiding several high points with buried ruins on top – as well as windmills which are legion in this area – we circled round, walked up through lovely woodland and arrived at one of the largest forts in the whole system, Alqueidao.

General view of the fort.

Approach road, with original cobbled road on the left.

    On the viewing platform. (No, I´m NOT lost!)

Don´t go without me!

Some excavation work has been carried out here, and interpretation boards abound, so the arrangement of the fortifications and artillery were easy to see. In the centre, a viewing platform has been built (enclosing a trig point!) with panorama boards on each side, showing the location of other forts, near and far. Sadly, eucalyptus trees have grown up on one complete side and part of another, so the view has gone.

We stayed here for lunch, and folk wandered around for a while. Then we started on the return leg of the walk. The descent from the fort to a low point in the valley near Cabeda seemed to go on forever, but the variety of pathways, through woods and small settlements, made for very attractive walking. Reaching the road through Cabeda, I made my second navigation error, which led us to walk up the main road (thankfully more or less traffic-free) rather than up the track I had planned. Once more it was the search for a place of refreshment that started the rot, and we didn´t find one anyway.

And what do you call this wonderful device, Bob?

At an important cross-roads on the climb, three of our number decided to walk straight into Sobral, while the rest walked up to the Igreja de Santo Quintino, which we found under extensive repair. Then back into Sobral via a very pleasant woodland path – though it ended at a less than pleasant housing area on the outskirts of the town. We ended where we had begun, in the square where the battle took place over two hundred years ago.

Dinner  on our last evening had been booked at Restaurant Roots, which sits on the edge of an area of parkland on the flat ground below the main town. This was the only place where we had been obliged to order a set meal, but the food and drink were once more of a really good standard. There were a few moments of panic when Ros inadvertently got some nuts in her mouth from the starter, but all was well.

    Roots.

There followed a session in a bar somewhere or other, I haven´t a clue.....

 As we walked between hotel and restaurant on this evening, workmen were laying red carpets down the pedestrian shopping streets. Turned out it was all about Christmas – or maybe Black something or other.

So, another away trip bites the dust. Thanks to all who took part, and commiserations to those who were not able to participate fully.  Where to next?