A Well-Trod Path, now with added Cultural Highlights

Alte to Benafim and VA Back

At one stage a 'standard' AWW walk, I was surprised to hear that only David and I had done the Alte to Benafim loop before. Anyway, having been roped in at short notice to lead when Sue M fell by the wayside (or somewhere near there), I thought it best to stick to a well-known route as a) I didn't have time to recce anything more adventurous) and b) it's a nice walk, with Six Cultural Highlights.

As it turned out, only 7 of us were actually around to do the walk, but we nevertheless enjoyed a beautiful day (just before the weather turned nasty, actually).

Roger, Sarah, Scott, Trish, David, Alan and myself set out at a leisurely pace, which only got slower as we went.

Through the outskirts of Alte:

All the way down, across the main road, and along to Cultural Highlight No 1: Ye Olde Sausage Factory:

 ... which was remarkably quiet ...

Along the bottom of the valley (I eschewed the climb up to the ridge, as Geoff had asked me to 'keep it gentle'):

and along to Cultural Highlight II: The Chain Store in Benafim:

Everyone having drooled over his immense collection of chains, we took a road into Benafim centro, and then some of us drooled over Cultural Highlight III: Ara Vitae, by Victor Borges:

    

(I mistakenly thought it was by Victor Borge, the Danish pianist, but I was Completely Wrong:

Victor Manuel Caetano Borges was:

"born on August 2, 1962, in Quinta do Freixo, Benafim. He emigrated with his parents to France, returned with his family to Portugal and returned to emigrate this time to the United States, where he lived for some years, returning definitively to Portugal. He lived in Silves and returned to Benafim where he died of a sudden illness on February 17, 2012, at the age of 49.")

Anyway, along to the lunch spot just outside Benafim Pequeno, which was Cultural Highlight IV: The Olde Wishy Washee House:

  

... and then on up to the Via Algarviana for the return leg,



Pausing briefly at Cultural Highlight V: Abbey Road:

  

(We really needed a VW Beetle with 28IF in the number plate, but at least Sarah was briefly barefoot.)

[Puzzled? Wikipedia elaborates: "Another example is the interpretation of the Abbey Road album cover as depicting a funeral procession. Lennon, dressed in white, is said to symbolise the heavenly figure; Starr, dressed in black, symbolises the undertaker; George Harrison, in denim, represents the gravedigger; and McCartney, barefoot and out of step with the others, symbolises the corpse.^[15]The number plate of the white Volkswagen Beetle in the photo was identified as further "evidence",^[9][36] the characters "28IF" representing McCartney's age "if" he had still been alive.^{[20][nb 5]} That the left-handed McCartney holds a cigarette in his right hand was also said to support the idea that he was an imposter.^[18]"

And then back to Alte, to pay our respects at Cultural Highlight VI: Old Bloke in Badly-Constructed Arch



and thence to o Folclore and post-walk drinks (which we forgot to collect for, sorry Sue).


Here is the aforementioned well-trod path, for the benefit of future generations:



Start: 10:08
End: 14:32
Distance: 16.7km
Ascent: 396m
Av. speed: 3.8km/hr

Many thanks to Alan Sheridan for all the photos.