A Meander along the Funcho.....and/or the Arade?

 A Meander along the Funcho.....and/or the  Arade?

By a strange coincidence, Terry M's  walk last week bordered the northern slopes of The Mighty Arade, where I had never personally set foot, though had admired from the opposite bank, of what I had always thought was the Barragem do Funcho. 

After some debate and research by Terry, he stated that   " barragem means dam and albufeira means reservoir, so when Google maps says 'albufeira do barragem do Funcho'  , this  means  'the reservoir caused by the Funcho dam'. 

As far as I can see, there is no river Funcho. Not there anyway...

It's easier up north; the Odeleuca river's reservoirs are both called 'albufeira de Odeleuca'. And its dam is called 'barragem de Odeleuca'  ".

The   Rio Arade , and flows through the Baragems do Funcho and Arade.

Having cleared that up,  24 walkers and one dog turned up at the appointed hour. For a change, coffee was taken by the side of the Silva cafe, so as to be in the sun and out of the cold wind!

Lto R : front row.....Dan, Trudy, Sue M, Miriam, Linda, John

Second row ; Geoff ,Sarah, Trish, Sue, Sue 2, Marian, Julie, Jim

Back row : Tony, Martin, Alan, John,Ken,Robin,Peter,Russell, Frank.

We were walking with a group of 5 from Bewdsly,  Worcester but Helen seems to have vanished...

We set off at a good pace to get warm : the sun was out, sky was blue, but wind cold. A number hadn't seen the graves nor the " Roman Checkers Board" so we detoured. Full descriptions are given at :

https://www.toursandtracksalgarve.pt/news/silves-pr-vale-fuzeiros-7-6-km/

I was a bit anxious about the steepish downward slope after the bulldozers had been active, but only the treasurer followed me ; the others all declaring an early UDI and followed Alan down a different route, allegedly easier:

The Arade seemed relatively high, and a beautiful blue in the sun;

Passed the Lynx farm, with what looked like a new enclosure on the hilltop for them, but not a lynx did we see:

but that have been as our sharpeyed (Cycling) John wasn't with us, who took this in January 2019:

After a short bit of tarmac, lunch called with a good spot opposite to where we ate the previous week:

with great views over the Funcho.

Frank was eager to get on:

The cistus was beginning to come out, but here is a spotless one:

We couldn't work out what all the cultivation work on the hillside was about, but there was more on the way;

with one busy on the summit still...

Back for a cold Sagres or whatever tipple you fancied...Alan said it was 19km, 4h31m including lunch, so almost 4.5kph on good tracks. Total assent was  890m, surprising, as it was all steady climbs.

Ken left the back door of his car open, too tempting a site for the new puppy at the cafe, but fortunately Sue M spotted Ken's trainer being dragged off just in time...

Finally, we managed 4 Tilleys....thanks to our Canadian visitors!

Geoff