Alte, who goes there?

Alte - Who goes there?

Well,...

Five grizzled veterans of this walk, plus 9 "Virgins" (all wise): (Julie, Sue, Linda, Ros, David, Terry, Sarah, Russell, Scott, Tony, John, Frank, (Martin and Alan)

I like this walk as a slight contrast to the wilderness/hilly walks. True, it features quite a lot of tarmac, but makes up for that with good views, nice tracks and (as I may have mentioned before) Cultural Highlights!

You do have a bit of a hill to struggle up to begin with, but...

.. you then join a bit of the Via Algarviana, which passes through ...

... Rocha Amarela "Yellow Rock", one of them there Ghost Towns of the Olde Algarve. 

And then ...

It bloody well started to rain! The forecast was for a 1% chance, and we struck unlucky. 

However, it only lasted a few minutes, so we all stripped off again and strode out purposefully ...

... passing through a host of golden clementines (which none of us stole, you'll be glad to hear) 

And thence to lunch, which was by the 'Ara Vitae' statue in Benafim:

This is me watching in surprise as Linda and/or Russell wrecked a perfectly good bench by sitting on it and leaning back (nobody was hurt, thank goodness).

We all, but especially Ros, enjoyed the sun for a bit, 

then made our way back through Benafim Pequeno 

I've just made this bed, you know...

Passing the inevitable 'Abbey Road' crossing (I bet no-one else ever does this)

Checking out the old man in a hat (grumpy, no doubt, because his arch still hasn't been fixed)

 

 ... And back to o Folclore!


Many thanks to Alan for the excellent photos.

My Stats:

Distance

Total distance20.66 km

Speed

Average speed4.18 km/h

Duration

Total time04:56:15

Altitude

Altitude gain558.2 m