AWW 18th September 2019 Portela do Barranco

It was a marvellous morning in the middle of September: the skies were blue and it was a little cooler than the last few weeks, and the walk leader has decided to feel marvellous for the whole of this walking season. He has ditched being miserable.

We met for the first walk of the season at Portela do Barranco to the north of Salir. Most arrived at the café with a feeling of trepidation as the route from Salir has some great hills: but they are for another day.

We had 10 at the start.

David, Kim, Jim H, Gill, Kirsten, Miriam, Sue M, Ken, Jim L and Bica: The marvellous Frank M took photo

The walk leader is not into any of these technically sophisticated cameras. You get what you get. He just tells lies with the captions.: despite the well known phrase that the "camera" never lies. Also he does not know how to work timers.

After telling everyone that the walk had been downgraded to a category "easy" instead of the moderate minus in the advanced notice, we immediately set off up the hill. It was the only "hill" of the day and the total length was to be a meagre 14.6km: the walk not the only hill.

Collecting the cork without which our wine would be corked.

At the top of the hill, we paused in the limited shade for breath and a drink. As it had been warm when we set off, the stop was shorter than normal. No-one had extra layers to divest.

All you need to get them in a good line for the photo is a single tree to provide shade

We meandered along the ridge for a few kilometres with views over to Malhao and the Buddhist stupa, but then it was down the hill to California.

You can see who is the "California girl"

And who wants to get off the Freeway into the country.

it was surprisingly green and colourful

There were lots of cork trees.

After leaving California we wandered through a series of valleys, until we came to a shady spot where we stopped for lunch

It must have been hot: David sat down.

Who is in the doghouse tonight - Bica?

Who is not in the doghouse?

Is Hazel  missing out?

A Fashion Statement: Will Blue be the colour this season starting November?

 After lunch it was a stroll along the paths back towards the start.

The giant tree of Alganduro

We came down the slope to Alganduro and stopped for a drink in the shade of this tree.

As we reached the road there was a "fall from Grace" and we had a number of the AWW filching fruit from the trees: the fig and olive trees were laden.

The Details

Distance: 14.6km
Elevation change: 279m
Calories (Gill): 715
Calories (Jim H): 3200
Time: 4hrs 5mins
Pace: 4.2km/hr (removing lunch stop)
Hills: only ONE that I walked up, but I heard regularly from some that they had hallucinated others
You can see below that from km 3 to km 10 that it is essentially a straight line on the elevation graph

 Frank M