AWW 19.12.2018: Mulled Wine and Muddied Boots

The pre-walk blurb told us what we all knew already, that this outing was to be David Littlewood´s swansong as both Leader and AWW Co-ordinator. Of course, he will be allowed to lead again, but the Co-ordinator´s Burden has now been handed over to another. Anyway, it didn´t seem right that David should have to lead, report, and also blog  on this, a landmark day, so this Blogger has stepped in to do the last bit. Frank McE suggested that there is an ulterior motive to this – we shall see. David´s very full  report follows. interspersed with a few photographs, a statistic or two,  and the occasional editorial comment. And now to David´s report.

“From Mince Pies to Mesquita (e volta)

“At Casa Benjamin, the Littlewood household was up and about even earlier than usual on this pre-Christmas morning, preparing for what seemed like an ever-diminishing group to appear, ravenous for the promised goodies. Steve S and family had been forced to pull out through illness, and Sue M mailed to say that her knee was in revolt. Gill and Jim were up against Xmas deadlines, and of course at this time of the year, quite a number were either 30,000 feet in the air like Ros, or already safe in the bosom of their far-flung families for the festivities (did you see the alliteration there?)

“In the event, Sue drove her complaining joint into action, and with three people arriving largely unannounced, we ended with a respectable 10, though Julie was under the weather and headed for the shops rather than the slopes. (Wise decision.) The early morning party was completed by marathon girl Rachel, who shared in the very welcome mince pies, mulled wine and coffee expertly prepared by Dinah. By the way Ken, did you get Steve C´s message to say that he would be joining your second walk in a week?

Coffees, mince pies and mulled wines.

( Frank really does not want to move.)

Our hostess

And our host.

“After a cosy half-hour (couldn´t be anything else in our sitting room), the party decamped down to Nave do Barao to start the walk. Our resident paparazzo had a longer run than usual to get into the photo, having had difficulty in finding anywhere to mount his gorilla pod.

(We assembled at the town rubbish dump cum recycling centre cum bus-stop for the Starter photo. The paparazzo´s magic remote control refused to work so he had a twenty-yard dash to get into the line-up in time.)

(With a bit of judicious photo-shopping ™, we get a reasonably presentable Starter Picture.)

“The final walking group consisted of: Tony, Sue M, Frank (on the road to recovery), John H, Hazel, Maria, Alan, Steve C, Karen and David. (Not necessarily in that order.)

Jasper decided to go along for the lunch time titbits. (and Frank still really does not want to move.)

The Track

and The Statistics

Total distance:17.9 kms. Total time:4 hrs 41 mins.

Moving time: 4 hrs 5 mins. Average moving speed: 4.7 kph

Total ascent: 685 metres.

Back to David´s report.

“Leaving the cars parked on the rough ground near the eco ponto (that´s the posh description), we walked along the new strip of tarmac connecting the main road with the farm lane in the valley, and took the latter along to the cross-tracks about 300m away. Turning left here (not half-left Sue), we walked across the valley floor and then up the increasingly steep track onto the ridge below trig-point Picavessa. (On the old military maps, all the trig-points have names).

Maria explaining the meaning of the word “Nave”

(apparently, it can mean “boat”, “plane”, “spaceship”, “aisle”, “plain or plateau”, or anything you want.)

On, up.

(When we did manage to pause for breath up at Picavessa,(which we shouldn´t have done, because here a rogue bee seized the opportunity to attack Steve),  I pointed out to the Leader that we had been going at 4.8 kph. Of course, it was Sue M with the allegedly dodgy knee who was leading the charge. Things eased off momentarily when Maria found an abandoned Minim …..is that the right name?………

……..but only momentarily.The Gang of Four, Sue M, Steve, Karen and Tony, kept the moving average well up, all day.)

“From here we turned left and covered the long but pleasantly flat and broad ridge separating the Nave do Barao and Tor/Funchais valleys before descending finally to the Loule - Salir road at Mesquita. All made the dangerous road crossing unscathed, and then walked down the roadside for maybe 200m to find the narrow concrete Rua da Pasmora. This leads down into the very attractive and surprisingly extensive valley below the main road. (And down really did mean down – a long way down, the inevitable corollary being…..).

“We walked along a mix of field tracks and concrete before climbing the most challenging hill of the day (I think I shall call it The Hill of the Five Steps) after which lunch was taken.

Persevere, Frank; only three more steps.

“During lunch we observed that the weather, which had started sunny and very promising, was beginning to turn more cloudy and chilly (I could have done with another mug of Dinah´s excellent mulled wine at this stage), and this developed steadily into 100% cloud cover by the end of the walk.

“Leaving the lunch spot we took another couple of turn and twists around the valley before climbing back out to Mesquita once more. Heading back up through the hamlet, we took a different route out onto the hill, passing the large water tanks serving the communities below, and then following a dirt track on a gentle descent to the almost deserted hamlet of Nave das Mealhas, overlooking the Nave do Barão valley.

“From there we descended into the Lagoa da Nave down a twisting old terrace track. (By the time we got down to the Lagoa, we were all a couple of inches taller because of the accumulation of red mud on the soles of our boots.)

Red mud the consistency of industrial grade,  export quality, cement.

(An archive photo from September 2012.)

“We crossed the Lagoa to the font, paused to scrape as much of the encrusted mud off our boots as we could…..

“…..and finally walked the farm lane, passing a splendid persimmon tree en route,

“and finally  back to the cars. We drove the short distance to the Bar Barão and settled down In the shelter of the outdoor seating area for the usual post perambulation drink and chat. Excellent value, especially the copos de tres of white wine.(The paparazzo failed in his duty and did not take any pics of the post-walk session, so here is another one from the archives, same bar, same location.)

Archive – also September 2012.

(One of the topics of conversation was trees, including the benefits of eucalyptus, in a managed mixed forest environment, as mulch, and a pair of dangly bits on a fig tree which had attacted Sue M´s notice towards the end of the walk –again, the paparazzo failed by not getting a shot of the evidence.)

“Thanks to all for a most enjoyable day. See you in 2019!”

David”

Well, it is us to have to thank David, not only for today´s hospitality and an excellent walk, but also for his co-ordination of the AWW over the past seven or eight years – I can´t remember exactly when  it was that he took over from Janet – may be more. He has kept people informed, prompted leaders to lead, put an immense amount of effort into organising the November expeditions that took the place of the Round-The-Corner events, has put up with the occasional hissy fit, has collected funds for the Bombeiros when we resolved to contribute annually after the Drama of the Frenchman´s Cliff, etc., etc. Great stuff.

Here are a few more archive photos of David to round this blog off.

His trade mark when walking has always been to carry a Google Earth map, so we always confident that he knew where we were or where we were meant to be going

.Searching for the mythical 10 dot cistus.

Applying the cistus markers

I don´t know what he is going to do with his time now. He could always take over as Chief Blogger.

Boas festas to all.