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
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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. |
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. |
There were lots of cork trees.
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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?
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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
Looks like a good inaugural walk, thanks Frank..Sue and I did 5 hours up in the Drakensberg yesterday so that we can get fit enough to join in October!
ReplyDeleteI love that Frank is marvellous now. He's found a great new sense of humour to go with it! Felt tired Wednesday night so there must have been some hills!
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